Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2000 21:26:25 +0100 From: Mark Ovens <marko@freebsd.org> To: Ben Smithurst <ben@freebsd.org> Cc: Dinesh Punjabi <dpunjabi@nyx.net>, doc@freebsd.org, Kent Stewart <kstewart@urx.com> Subject: Re: 18.4.7. Update /etc (this section is very confusing) Message-ID: <20000820212625.K254@parish> In-Reply-To: <20000820195929.X58928@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk>; from ben@freebsd.org on Sun, Aug 20, 2000 at 07:59:30PM %2B0100 References: <000701c00a52$6a793be0$14fa90cc@intersols.com> <20000820043554.Q58928@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk> <000901c00ac5$29fa79d0$14fa90cc@intersols.com> <20000820195929.X58928@strontium.scientia.demon.co.uk>
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On Sun, Aug 20, 2000 at 07:59:30PM +0100, Ben Smithurst wrote:
> Dinesh Punjabi wrote:
>
> > It talks about updating /etc as the heading, yet it says
> > that /usr and /var may also need to be updated.
> > So change the heading to reflect this.
> >
> > Secondly, mention mergemaster as a way to merge things.
>
> Well, I might commit this diff (unless anyone has a good reason why
> not). It doesn't completely clear it up, but it mentions mergemaster
> at least, and then once people know about that they can ignore the rest
> of the section. Perhaps the section can be cleaned up a bit more when
> someone does it, or I have a bit more time to do it myself.
>
Part (most?) of the problem with the whole of the Using Make World
section is that it covers too wide a range of releases. I recall that
the first time I ever did a ``make world'' I had to read each step
more than once to make absolutely sure I was following the correct
instructions for the version I was building. I suggested that it
should only cover current versions but it was pointed out (by Nik
IIRC) that there are many people who still use quite old releases on
production machines, which is a very valid point.
Perhaps the solution is to split it into 2, if not 3, separate
sections delimited by major changes in the build process, e.g. when
the {build,install}world targets and the {build,install}kernel targets
were introduced. The current structure contains too many instances of
this type of thing:
if (version >= 4)
do(this)
else if (version >= 3)
do(this_instead)
else
do(the_last_resort)
which makes it awkward to follow.
OK, splitting it up would result in some duplication but from a
maintenance point of view only the procedure for latest version(s) is
likely to change.
Just my £0.02
BTW, the diffs (snipped) look OK as an interim solution.
--
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