Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 01:10:05 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Barton <DougB@FreeBSD.org> To: Anton Zavrin <antonzav@pacbell.net> Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: RE: Mergemaster Request (RE: mergemaster tips) Message-ID: <20030421010120.K1446@znfgre.tberna.bet> In-Reply-To: <006701c307a5$ee7948b0$0200a8c0@travel> References: <006701c307a5$ee7948b0$0200a8c0@travel>
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On Sun, 20 Apr 2003, Anton Zavrin wrote:
> Well, I'm a newbie and started to use mergemaster more/less seriously 2
> unsuccessful buildworld times ago, actually buildworlds were successful,
> it's just after I ran mergemaster and rebooted something went wrong, but
> it's all good, I just finished my 3rd buildworld and everything seems to
> be working (even after mergemaster), I still feel like there is
> something I missed, you know this weird feeling ;-).
Well, there are detailed upgrade instructions on the web site, so you
needn't feel that nameless fear.
> Anyways, as for the man pages, my biggest problems were not deep enough
> explanations for each switch, may be because I'm a newbie.
Hrrmm... ok, I'll look at expanding that.
> What are those: CVS $Id's? Last time I was using mergemaster I got many
> files with the same CVS $Id's and they were deleted or something.
The only files mergemaster deletes are the ones in the temproot directory
that it creates. If something got deleted on your live system, it wasn't
mergemaster's fault. :)
> Another thing is that (I feel stupid now) when I ran mergemaster for the
> first time, I didn't know that when I use "r" or "l" I am given only one
> raw from both files to compare and after I picked what side I wanna use,
> I hit "q" and "i' to install, instead of just keep going with comparison
> of each raw for each file (old/new)
Reading the sdiff man page will help you here.
> Need a better explanation of such little things like: "!", "---", "+++",
> etc.
> I think I was wrong about saying that man pages are not good, what I
> meant is that would be great to have a help page/FAQ with real life
> examples of how to use mergemaster, entire process.
> mergemaster is an advanced tool for an advanced users and wasn't meant
> for newbies, so I can't argue here.
Well, several people have suggested this, unfortunately I'm not the one to
write it, since I'm obviously too close to the topic. I will take your
suggestions into account for the man page though, thanks. If someone else
wants to write such a thing, I'd be happy to review it though.
> Also that would be great if there was a utility/script that would do the
> following automatically:
> 1. Copy (not replace) new files that are not installed in the
> system yet (mergemaster already has such switch)
Two, actually. You can use -i to install new files automatically in
interactive mode, or you can use -i -a to run through and install new
files, and delete everything that is up to date before going through the
rest, either by hand, or with the -r switch.
> 2. Go into "conf" (pre-specified list of such files that can be
> edited by a user) files to see what new functions/switches are
> missing and add (in a commented form)those functions/switches
> automatically without replacing old ones. That would save a lot of
> time during mergemaster process and after everything is done,
> before re-boot, a user can go into those files (pre- specified list)
> and quickly uncomment those lines he/she needs/wants to use; this is
> a more visual process and easier understandable.
This is way, way harder than it sounds. If someone wants to tackle it
though, you have my best wishes. :)
> 3. Replace old binaries with new
This is what 'make installworld' does in /usr/src, so this is already
covered.
Doug
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