# Saving configuration?



## mefizto (Jan 27, 2019)

Greetings all,

I was able to install FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE-p2 on a laptop, so for the first time I have FreeBSD based desktop.  Since I have put a lot of effort into configuration, I would like to ba able to replicate it in the future.

The problem is that the various configuration parameters are spread in different places: dot-files under /home/username, /etc/*.conf files, /user/local/etc/..., /boot/loader/, _etc_.

Any advice in this matter would be appreciated.
Kindest regards,

M


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## Sevendogsbsd (Jan 27, 2019)

Personally, I back up my entire /home/user directory using `rsync` to my NAS. I also copy each and every config I have changed (I just remember which ones I have changed) to my NAS as well, so in the event I have to reinstall, or have a hardware failure, I can replace the configs.

Some folks use version control systems to keep configuration files, I think there is a tutorial here on how to do that under the "HOWTO" section. For my little workstation, I prefer just copying the individual config files to my NAS.

If you do not have network storage, you can copy them to a cloud, if there isn't anything sensitive in them, or back them up to a thumb drive or external drive as well. Really your preference. I also do complete backups of the file systems on my PC using `dump` to my NAS as well. Probably overkill but backups are good when something breaks


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## mefizto (Jan 27, 2019)

Hi Sevendogsbsd,

thank you for the reply, which is timely because I still remember which files I changed, so can make a list.

I will try to search for the HOWTO article.
Kindest regards,
M


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