On Monday, 20 September 2021 15:52:03 BST Gerrit Kuehn wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Sep 2021 15:29:30 +0100
> 
> Michael <confabulate@kintzios.com> wrote:
> > Personally, I'd back up /home /etc and world file, plus any databases
> > or websites if stored under /var/, then untar the latest stage 3
> > tarball and update @system and @world.
> 
> Just extracting stage3 over everything that is already there?

No, I move out of the way the config/data files I want to keep and move them 
back in after untarring the stage 3.


> >  Overall it should be a *much*
> > faster approach to allow you to bring your installation up to date.
> 
> Well, yeah, your mileage may vary.

Quite, if you can get your existing installation to only run a minimal number 
of rebuilds to arrive at an upgraded toolchain, then the benefit of 
reinstalling wouldn't be there.  This could have been the case on an average 
year, when python deprecations didn't accelerate and EAPI didn't change.  If 
however you end up tying up yourself in knots with subsequent python upgrades 
and difficult to resolve conflicts, then the pain Vs gain calculus changes.