Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 15:29:27 -0700 From: Daniel Brown <djb@unixan.com> To: "Jonathan M. Slivko" <jslivko@4evermail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: mergemaster -- whats the best way? Message-ID: <20011016152927.0cc816e3.djb@unixan.com> In-Reply-To: <20011016220800.B55640@dansat.data-plan.com> References: <001301c15671$6b2effe0$252da818@sioux> <5.1.0.14.0.20011016140751.02852dc8@pop.schulte.org> <20011016220800.B55640@dansat.data-plan.com>
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FYI, mergemaster already has a -i flag to install new files that don't
exist in the target directory.
As for replacing files that had not be modified since the last merge,
some sort of MD5 checksum database would probably be best. The Debian
package management system utilizes MD5 checksum during a binary package
upgrade, to determine whether it is safe to automatically replace a
configuration file owned by the package.
Perhaps each installation performed via mergemaster can create a
plain-text list of MD5 checksums each time it installs new files, and
these files are automatically replaced during the next upgrade. To be
sure first-time upgprades to -RELEASE series occur easily, perhaps
installation media should start including such MD5 checksums.
Personally, I was thinking of hacking this feature into my own copies of
mergemaster some time in the medium future. =)
-Daniel
------------ Quoted Message ------------
Date...: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 22:08:00 +0100
From...: Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@pobox.com>
To.....: Christopher Schulte <christopher@schulte.org>
CC.....: "Jonathan M. Slivko" <jslivko@4evermail.com>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: mergemaster -- whats the best way?
On Tue, Oct 16, 2001 at 02:16:19PM -0500, Christopher Schulte wrote:
> At 02:30 PM 10/16/2001 -0400, Jonathan M. Slivko wrote:
> >Hello all,
> >
> >Whats the best way about going to do a mergemaster without having to read
> >through every single change, modification, etc. Is there some kind of script
> >that will automatically merge the changes into the existing files without
> >much user intervention? (e.g. unattended?)
> >-- Jonathan
>
> Automatic merging would be a very bad thing. Here's how I do it:
>
> If the changed file is one I made no local modifications to, aka was the
> default per my previous install, I let mergemaster replace the old file
> completely.
>
> If the file didn't exist in my previous install, I let mergemaster install it.
>
> If the changed file is one I made modifications to, I leave it be and merge
> the changes on my own. I then rerun mergemaster until it tells me all
> files are updated.
Of course some way could be found to let mergemaster detect the first case
(based on saving 'master copies of installed /etc files' somewhere I guess).
The second is trivial. That just leaves the third.
I think having some way to let mergemaster only hassle users with questions
about files they've modified previously makes a lot of sense.
Tim.
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