Bare Necessities

I recently switched to DreamHost, and am used to cPanel. At my old webhost I was able to keep my file and directory structure to a minimum because I knew what files and folders could be deleted because they would regenerate as needed. With this technique I was able to make a minimal backup.

Can someone please tell me what files and folders are safe to delete from FTP or shell? I host my email elsewhere, and don't currently monitor my logs.

My current structure includes the following:

.alias .bash_profile .bashrc .cshrc Maildir logs nuwake

Which files are safe to delete? Is it safe to delete all of these directories except my public html folder, will they regenerate when needed?

In reply to:
Can someone please tell me what files and folders are safe to delete from FTP or shell? I host my email elsewhere, and don't currently monitor my logs.

Why do you feel the need to delete anything? There is no possible gain by it. All your web-enabled content should go in your "nuwake" folder. Everything else is connected to logs, system files, and various settings. Things will not magically regenerate if you delete them - they will require specific intervention by a member of the support team.

> to make a minimal backup.
> .alias .bash_profile .bashrc .cshrc Maildir logs nuwake

The dot-files are of no consequence, in file size, for backups, and you should probably keep them for things to work right. logs directories should be owned by root; therefore, you shouldn't be able to delete them; you can delete log files; log files can be limited in number with the DH panel, but they should also be regenerated (I think) over time. Maildir should be basically empty since you haven't been using mail, and should stay that way if you keep it cleaned out. Obviously you can delete old mail, but it won't be regenerated, although new spam will :-).

Good luck,

BobS

cPanel would create a ton (not exaggerating) of unnecessary files thus making it hard to organize content. I don't plan on deleting necessary files, so that is why I created this post. Thanks for your response.