Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 15:49:32 -0600 From: Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> To: Kent Stewart <kstewart@owt.com> Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Vi a Joke ? Message-ID: <15354.53228.792684.130499@guru.mired.org> In-Reply-To: <34871309@toto.iv>
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Kent Stewart <kstewart@owt.com> types: > Anthony Atkielski wrote: > >>One point people forget and that is what can > >>you use when you mess up rc.conf and your system > >>will only boot into single user mode. Learning > >>vi at that point is a painic :). > > Can't you just restore the previous copy of the file and reboot? You made a > > backup copy of the last bootable version of the file before you changed it, > > right? > It is all too often a one line change and no one does a backup then. > That is what gets them in trouble to begin with. It doesn't happen that > often and I have always been able to mount /usr and correct the error > using my editor of choice. The thing you can't do is re-ftp a corrected > version or do an nfs_mount to pick up the backup. Occasionally, we see > files that are corrupt because they have <cr><lf>'s on the end of the line. I keep such configuration files in a source management system. The benefits of doing so are enormous, and I recommend doing so for everyone. One of the benefits is that you can always get the old version of a config file back. The catch is that getting the old version back requires the source management system be accessible. You either have to be able to fix the file with ed, or know enough to bring up the subsystems needed to get to the management system by hand. As an aside, if you leave /usr on /, your editor of choice should be available anyway, right? <mike -- Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.org> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/ Q: How do you make the gods laugh? A: Tell them your plans. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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