Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2021 05:54:37 -0800 (PST) From: "Jeffrey Bouquet" <jbtakk@iherebuywisely.com> To: "Miroslav Lachman" <000.fbsd@quip.cz> Cc: "Yetoo Happy" <yetoohappy@gmail.com>, "freebsd-doc" <freebsd-doc@freebsd.org>, "freebsd-current" <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Make etcupdate bootstrap requirement due to previous mergemaster usage more clear in handbook Message-ID: <E1mt91J-0002Cl-Sx@rmmprod07.runbox> In-Reply-To: <56a60a9b-3d7f-b29e-6074-71078f4b0fe6@quip.cz>
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On Fri, 3 Dec 2021 13:58:39 +0100, Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> wrote: > On 03/12/2021 12:52, Yetoo Happy wrote: > > [...] > > > Quick Start* and follow the instructions and get to step > > 7 and may think that even though etcupdate is different from mergemaster > > from the last time they used the handbook they have faith that following > > the instructions won't brick their system. This user will instead find that > > faith in general is just a very complex facade for the pain and suffering > > of not following *24.5.6.1 Merging Configuration Files* because the user > > doesn't know that step exists or relevant to the current step and ends up > > unknowingly having etcupdate append "<<<< yours ... >>>>> new" to the top > > of the user's very important configuration files that they didn't expect > > the program to actually modify that way when they resolved differences nor > > could they predict easily because the diff format is so unintuitive and > > different from mergemaster. Now unable to login or boot into single user > > mode because redirections instead of the actual configuration is parsed the > > user goes to the handbook to find out what might have happened and scrolls > > down to find *24.5.6.1 Merging Configuration Files* is under *24.5.6. > > [...] > > That's why I think etcupdate is not so intuitive as tool like this > should be and etcupdate is extremely dangerous because it intentionally > breaks syntax of files vital to have system up and running. > If anything goes wrong with mergemaster automatic process then your have > configuration not updated which is almost always fine to boot the system > and fix it. But after etcupdate? Much worse... > > I maintain about 30 machines for 2 decades and had problems with > etcupdate many times. I had ti use mergemaster as fall back many times. > Mainly because of etcupdate said "Reference tree to diff against > unavailable" or "No previous tree to compare against, a sane comparison > is not possible.". And sometimes because etcupdate cannot automatically > update many files in /etc/rc.d and manual merging of a lot of files with > "<<<< ==== >>>>" is realy painful while with mergemaster only simple > keyboard shortcuts will solve it. > All of this must be very stressful for beginners. > > So beside the update of documentation I really would like to see some > changes to etcupdate workflow where files are modified in temporary > location and moved to destination only if they do not contain any syntax > breaking changes like <<<<, ====, >>>>. > > Kind regards > Miroslav Lachman Agree. I fell back to mergemaster this Nov on 13-stable when the /var files pertaining to etcupdate were all missing current /etc data, and no study of man etcupdate was clear enough to rectify such a scenario, and suspect my initial use of etcupdate will or may require a planned reinstall, not having had to do so since Jan 2004 iirc, [ vs failed hard disk migrations ] and I am just hoping mergemaster stays in /usr/src and updated for system changes, even if moved to 'tools' or something, since its use seems intuitive and much less of a black box. Also, /usr/src/UPDATING still at the bottom emphasizes mergemaster still.help
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