Upgrade with multiple partitions

[akuira]

When I first started with linux I kept reformatting and losing everything from /home because I was experimenting with different distro's and I read somewhere it helps if you make /home it's own partition so when you upgrade or reinstall a distro you can hold onto you /home files. Now, I also read you can doit with multiple partitions ( /, /var, /home, /usr, /tmp, and swap.)

Now I am wondering how would I go about updating my system files without formatting my /home with everything else?

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by akuira

Now I am wondering how would I go about updating my system files without formatting my /home with everything else?

While performing a complete distro upgrade or just upgrading certain packages?

Upgrading system files should not touch anything within the /home directories.

[sajchurchey]

Yeah,

If you upgrade a distro, it should only update the packages and maybe some configuration settings. However, if you want to re-install, when you do the partitioning create separate "mount points" such as /var and /home. You can also share swap but there is no real reason to keep any of the other mount points. Then you just need to format the / partion when you do a re-install. You can also use this to boot more than one distro and share user files.