Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 07:27:30 -0800 From: "Kevin Oberman" <oberman@es.net> To: "Jason Halbert" <jason@jason-n3xt.org> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Mergemaster Message-ID: <200103241527.f2OFRUc03441@ptavv.es.net> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sat, 24 Mar 2001 02:32:19 CST." <NIENKACEKADMCAMLPCNMOEBICAAA.jason@jason-n3xt.org>
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I think I might have to try writing a tutorial on mergemaster. For some reason lots of folks are either confused about how to run it or are intimidated by it. The whole point to mergemaster is to allow changes to files that are frequently/normally configured by an system administrator. These are mostly in the /etc tree. When you run mergemaster, it will build a copy of the root environment, normally in /var/tmp/temproot. Once this is done, you will get a long list of files you have on your system that are not in the FreeBSD distribution. These are often files installed by X11 or files you have created. It's a good idea to scan over this list, but I'll admit that I seldom bother. Then you will start getting the output of "diff | more" for all files that are different from the original version. If the file is one you have not customized, you almost certainly want to select 'i' to install the newer file. You may also get some files that don't exist on your system because they were added to the tree since your prior installation. You almost certainly want to install 'i' these, too. If you have a reason to not want to install the new version or make any changes to the old version, choose 'd'. When you get to a file that you have edited, you probably want to do merge. If you select 'm', you will get an sdiff display where you can blend lines from your existing file (on the left) and the new file (on the right) by entering 'l' or 'r'. If the changes are such that simply selecting 'l' or 'r' does not do the right thing, you can choose 'e' to bring up the file in an editor so that you can make it look exactly like you want it to look. Always select 'r' when the rcs version lines are shown. I always look at the differences, even though I know I will be selecting the new version. There is a lot of easily understandable information about changes in the system and it might cause you to realize that something is messed up in the current installation. The first time you run mergemaster is the worst. After you have done your merges, future runs won't ask about the merged files because the rcs versions will not be changed (unless, of course, the distribution file HAS changed.) Running mergemaster is usually a pretty quick operation if you update your system often as there are fewer changes to deal with on any run. I usually update at least once a month and sometime more often if I see patches that look like they are relevant to me. R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) E-mail: oberman@es.net Phone: +1 510 486-8634 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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