From owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Dec 15 03:28:08 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAC9C16A4CE for ; Wed, 15 Dec 2004 03:28:08 +0000 (GMT) Received: from nuumen.pair.com (nuumen.pair.com [209.68.1.119]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7D12543D48 for ; Wed, 15 Dec 2004 03:28:08 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from thuppi@nuumen.pair.com) Received: (qmail 73136 invoked by uid 55300); 15 Dec 2004 03:28:08 -0000 Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 22:28:08 -0500 (EST) From: Tom Huppi X-X-Sender: thuppi@nuumen.pair.com To: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org In-Reply-To: <41BFA22A.6090201@nbritton.org> Message-ID: References: <000101c4e215$2cdfedc0$9900000a@ZGISH> <41BFA22A.6090201@nbritton.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Subject: notes and/or RCS (was:Re: Root directory filling up... X-BeenThere: freebsd-newbies@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Gathering place for new users List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 03:28:09 -0000 On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Nikolas Britton wrote: > Kiffin Gish wrote: > > >Wow, that seems like a lot of work. Suppose instead I choose just to > >reinstall everything all over again... > save a copy of the dmesg output... "dmesg >> /home/dmesg" > > basically save anything that you have made or edited > > I highly recommend starting a log/notes/diary for all this stuff; > special settings, hard to remember commands, tips/tricks, > special/complex procedures, advice etc. One might also consider using RCS for most config file edits. I, like many folks, started out using a series of notes. After a time I learned some simple RCS based tricks and now tend to use them (actually, I do it habitually and religiously.) The thing that is really nice is a single command line that shows all the files edited, what, when, where, and why (depending on input.) I wish I had started doing this earlier in my unix work, and probably would have had I run across these instructions: Quick: http://www.unix.org.ua/orelly/perl/sysadmin/appa_01.htm More Detailed (what I used): http://www.samag.com/documents/s=1184/sam9812a/ FreeBSD has RCS in the base system, so forget the 'installing RCS' part. Advantages (for a newbie, accd to me): - becomes pretty mechanical - teaches basics of RCS which helps understand CVS better. - some of the 'tricks' help understand more general unix tricks. - teaches about various gotchas (see below): Gotchas (that I've run into): - some files are automatically edited like: - /etc/groups (when installing certain ports) - /etc/reslov.conf (by ppp software) this causes a hassle. Just don't use RCS on them, but it's a learning process to figure out which ones are in this category, and can be a head-scratcher when it does cause a problem. - forgetting to unlock a file after editing. It's tempting to see if an edit works before committing it, and easy to forget which causes a hassle when... - 'logname' issues: ...you might su, edit a file, neglect to unlock it, re-boot, then find your logname when logged on as root is not the same as when you su'd so you have to break 'someone elses' lock. Not a big deal, but a hassle non-the-less. Thanks, - Tom