I have a simple wish, with a probably not so simple solution.

I recently started with linux (Arch kde), I’m loving it, I quickly realized that this OS and almost all apps, are highly customizable, I’m laving that as well. My problem is the unavoidable reinstalls and that I have a laptop.

Is there any way that I can save all my configs, apps and my apps’ configs, and transfer them over to my laptop, while almost having a very quick back-up. I realize that I could turn it into an ISO somehow, but that wouldn’t work (I think) because my laptop has vastly different hardware. I also realize the partitioning problem. So in my idealistic world, there should be a solution that requires a clean install (from scripts or manual) and some .sh file, that installs all my apps, pastes all my configs and reboots.

So is this possible? and if yes, how should I go about this? did someone make a tool for this already? Or(!) can I burn it to a flash and the drivers will correct themselves/I’ll deal with them later?

For final words I’d like to say that I’m far from finished configurating, but I’d like to know the proccess, to not shoot myself in the foot somewhere along the way of configing, thanks!

  • @[email protected]
    7•1 year ago

    There is a pacman command that prints the list of all packages installed by users. I don’t remenber the command sorry but you’ll find that here:

    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Pacman/Tips_and_tricks

    Its probably “pacman -Qe”.

    Then it should be easy to create a script that install all that automaticcally. If your are cautious you should have a backup of your home anyway on some storage device .

    • @[email protected]OP
      1•1 year ago

      Huh, does everything store it’s configs in ~/.config ? Is it some unwritten rule? That’d make life so much easier.

      • Limitless_screaming
        8•1 year ago

        Unfortunately not every app follows that convention. A lot of them just dump config files into your home directory, including Firefox.

        There’s a script called XDG-Ninja that can list some of the apps that do that. You can probably get it from the AUR

      • @[email protected]
        4•1 year ago

        Sorry I edited my post, I was wrong.

        .config stores many apps settings. But unfortunately some apps stores that directly in ~ as hidden files and directories. Personnally I make a backup of my whole home.