Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2000 10:23:54 -0800 From: Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org> To: Artem Koutchine <matrix@ipform.ru> Cc: Gilles.Guerrini@alcatel.fr, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: mergemaster Message-ID: <3A37BEBA.BD4AD3F2@FreeBSD.org> References: <C12569B2.0054F8EE.00@frmail19.netfr.alcatel.fr> <20001211105219.B16205@fw.wintelcom.net> <001b01c063a5$a04676a0$0c00a8c0@ipform.ru>
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Artem Koutchine wrote:
>
> Hello!
>
> I think somebody should write a nice tutorial on the mergemaster :)
Read the man page. I've worked quite hard to make the man page as
thorough as possible in reference to how mergemaster works. If there is
anything missing, let me know. As far as learning more about
specifically which files to install when, there are already tutorials on
how to do the upgrade that describe this in general terms. It's more
appropriate to place more specific details in those tutorials since
mergemaster is designed as much as possible _not_ to know about specific
files.
> 2) NEVER INSTALL the files which have been customized for sure.
>
> Usual suspects:
> /etc/master.passwd
> /etc/group
> /etc/hosts
This is bad advice. There are times when we add new default users
and/or groups to the system, almost always because some part of the
system needs to be installed using that user or group. Your install will
fail if you don't add them. The easiest way to handle this is to make
sure you have the most current CVS tag in your files. That way you won't
be bothered with it if there are no changes.
> 3) MERGE some specific files which can be customized but still need to be
> upgraded:
>
> Usual suspects:
> /etc/crontab
>
> However, i usually manage to do it by hand instead of using the merger
It's much safer to use mergemaster's built in sdiff call to do this. It
dramatically reduces the possibility of cut and paste errors. If you
need help with learning how to use sdiff properly, read the man page.
It's really quite a powerful tool.
> 4) Do not delete the tree after mergemaster in the /tmp It'll help to solve
> some problems if you have any. This rule applies only to beginners
By default mergemaster creates the temproot tree in /var/tmp. There are
a lot of people who like to leave their old trees for later comparison,
that's why there is a datestamp option.
> 5) Do upgrades more often. You'll have less file to merge :)
That's not always possible, especially for production machines.
> THE RULES NUMBER '0' (ZERO THAT IS):
>
> LEARN THE MEANING OF EACH AND EVERY FILE (POSSIBLE GROUPPED
> BY DIRECTORY) IN THE /etc
This is good advice of course, but I would say more importantly that
you need to take good backups of your /etc and other critical files.
That way, if you fumblefinger a merge, you can still recover.
> I wonder if this procedure can be a little bit more automatic. For example,
> the mergmaster checks if the file have been actually changed, and it was not
> (from the original file of the prev mergmaster) than it can pretty much
> install a new
> version of it, otherwiese - ask the user. The problem is to determine
> whether it was
> changed :)
As has been stated previously, that's being worked on.
Doug
--
So what I want to know is, where does the RED brick road go?
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