From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 30 10:33:39 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 29B5516A41F for ; Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:33:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 62BED43D48 for ; Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:33:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (fezkly@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j8UAXZ2l038399 for ; Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:33:36 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j8UAXZtR038398; Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:33:35 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 12:33:35 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: <200509301033.j8UAXZtR038398@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <20050930084218.GC80146@uk.tiscali.com> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-current User-Agent: tin/1.5.4-20000523 ("1959") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-RELEASE (i386)) X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 11:29:24 +0000 Cc: Subject: Re: A smarter mergemaster X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2005 10:33:39 -0000 Brian Candler wrote: > On Fri, Sep 30, 2005 at 02:45:48AM +0400, Yar Tikhiy wrote: > > The fruitiest features are as follows: > > Will it automatically install new versions of files where the old one was > not altered? That's my biggest bugbear with mergemaster - it asks you about > a zillion files in /etc/rc.d which you have to manually agree to overwrite > just because the RCS ID has changed. There's already a knob in /etc/mergemaster.rc to skip files if only the RCS ID has changed. However, IMHO, if more than just the RCS ID has changed, the changes should always be displayed, no matter whether the local copy had been modified or not. The changes could always be important (especially in the case of /etc/defaults/*). Personally, I would like to see a knob (e.g. something in /etc/mergemaster.rc) to always install certain files without asking. The files should be specified by name or directory path. The best example for this would be the contents of /etc/mtree and /etc/gnats -- I never care about those files, and I _always_ want the new files to be installed, no matter what. This could be a knob in /etc/mergemaster.rc, like this: ALWAYS_INSTALL="/etc/mtree/* /etc/gnats/*" I could create a small patch for such a feature, if the maintainer accepts it (Doug Barton, I think). On a related note, an ALWAYS_DELETE setting could be useful for things like /etc/motd (I have my own text in the motd, and I never want it to be overwritten). Of course, as always, it's in the admins responsibility to use such settings wisely and not shoot himself in the foot. (It's UNIX tradition to not prevent anyone from shooting his foot, as long as the defaults are reasonably safe and there are sufficient warnings in the docs.) > Also, can we have mergemaster work as part of the binary upgrade process too > please... the new files are in /usr/share/examples/etc so I don't see why we > can't merge directly from there into /etc Uhm, I thought that was already possible? Of course, you must have the (new) sources installed under /usr/src in order to be able to run mergemaster, but I don't think that a buildworld/installworld is required. It should also be possible to use mergemaster after a binary upgrade. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way. (On the statement print "42 monkeys" + "1 snake":) By the way, both perl and Python get this wrong. Perl gives 43 and Python gives "42 monkeys1 snake", when the answer is clearly "41 monkeys and 1 fat snake". -- Jim Fulton