If memory serves me right, Kent Stewart wrote:
> whisky wrote:
> >
> > How does one use mergemaster correctly after a make installworld of 4.2-R t
> o
> > 4.x-S
>
> Very, very carefully.
That applies to pretty much any system administration task.
> It will try to change all of the configuration
> files that have been updated. If you have added local mods, they
> disappear.
Say again?!? Your "local mods" only disappear if you let mergemaster
overwrite them. It never does anything without telling you.
> I don't let it touch my firewall rules, ppp.conf, passwd,
> or groups. It will also try to change files root uses but I don't let
> it. I check when it changes my dot."*" files. If I have added local
> aliases or paths, I don't want them removed. The choices provided by
> mergemaster on them is always i(nstall new), d(elete new), or m(erge).
Have you actually tried the last of the three options? I've found that
it works pretty well for merging in a set of local changes with a new
version of a file. You need to pay attention when doing the merge,
obviously.
My advise: Run mergemaster after an installworld. Read the diffs it
produces. The first time you run it (on a system updated from
4.2-RELEASE) you'll probably see a lot of changes. In general, if you
know you didn't modify a file, you can probably just let it install the
new version. Learn how sdiff works for handling merges of files, to
handle the case where you made a local modification and the original,
base file was also updated. The first few times you do this, make sure
to have a backup of /etc so you can bail yourself out if necessary.
Bruce.
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