migrating to a newly acquired computer

gistfile1.txt

# install operating system onto new drive
# previous computer's drive is mounted in /mnt/oldinstall

# install all software my previous machine had installed
# - might want to trim off distribution and arch if going to a new release
# - or just skip this if going to a new release
yum install $( diff <( chroot /mnt/oldinstall rpm -qa | sort ) <( rpm -qa | sort) | grep \< | cut -c3- )
# or apt-get if you have it

# copy home directories
cp -avr /mnt/oldinstall/home/* /home

# there is no step three.