In alt.os.linux.slackware, Ori dared to utter,
> I will be trying Slackware 9.1 soon - after noobishly hosing a perfectly
> good 9.0 install hint:chown * is just as bad as rm -rf *...

Theoretically that can be fixed without reinstallation, while
recursively deleting everything by definition requires re-installation.
Looking at the MANIFEST.bz file included with Slackware 9.0, I noticed
this:

++========================================
||
|| Package: ./a/aaa_base-9.0.0-noarch-1.tgz
||
++========================================
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-03-10 11:33:01 ./
drwxr-xr-x root/bin 0 1997-10-06 01:10:09 bin/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 1997-10-06 01:10:09 dev/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2003-03-10 11:33:00 etc/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 2001-02-05 17:47:32 etc/X11/

In other words, every file and directory created by the installation
has it's permissions documented here. In theory, you could script
something to check each file listed here or in the slocate database and
change it's permissions to reflect these.

> No regular users can do <insert appropriate profatity> anymore, I figure
> it's easier to reinstall than figure out which permissions I fucked up.

You FUBARed all your permissions IIRC, since you did a recursive chmod.
A recursive chown isn't too ahrd to fix, since most everything is owned
by root:root. Some files are owned by other users, such as /var and
/home. Outside of those directories everything should be pretty much
root:root.

> Will I be able to just copy over the config files from 9.0 (rc.firewall,
> proftpd.conf, and the like) or did the changes introduce incompatibilites?

That can only be answered on a case-by-case basis. Generally most
config files can be restored in place without much trouble. Pat doesn't
control how all the packages have changed between Slackware 9.0 and
9.1, but in practice most open source developers don't change the way
config files are parsed from release to release for just this reason.
New functionality is added, old functionality is kept in (albeit
usually deprecated) to maintain backwards compatability.

> Oh, and of course - any neat new toys I should look at? :-)

First thing I noticed was the new /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 script.

--
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5