From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 21 15:32:30 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6C75E16A4CE for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 15:32:30 -0800 (PST) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [204.156.12.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6801743D5A for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 15:32:28 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by fledge.watson.org (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id hBLNVoUd029442; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 18:31:50 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from localhost (robert@localhost)hBLNVo1i029439; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 18:31:50 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 18:31:50 -0500 (EST) From: Robert Watson X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Evren Yurtesen In-Reply-To: <3FE620B5.9050201@ispro.net.tr> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mergemaster feature suggestion... X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 23:32:30 -0000 On Mon, 22 Dec 2003, Evren Yurtesen wrote: > But also, does binary upgrade remove older files from /etc? I tried that > only 1 time and it didnt even install half of the files required in /etc > directory :) for example sshd conf files etc. were missing. Then I > decided that I will not do that unless I absolutely need to. > > I use build/install-world because I dont want to spend so much bandwidth > and I prefer to get latest patches etc. easily. I want to have the > possibility to go back to a date later on if I have a problem with the > latest sources. So cvsup does that for me easily. > > About those old files, I think any old file which doesnt exist in newer > release does not only waste space and cause confusion. Also it might > cause security problems. Considering, a problem in a file/binary > whatever which does not exist in newer versions wouldnt be fixed by the > freebsd developers. However it is a small possibility. > > I often thought of a way to remove older files. I even considered making > a fresh install of the latest version of FreeBSD to a test machine and > compare the file structures to remove files from the actual machines. > But there can be an utility to do that right? If there is an utility to > compare the files and install (mergemaster) there can be an utility to > remove the older files also, or this can be implemented inside > mergemaster as an option/ You might want to take a look at Eivind's "etcmerge" port in ports/sysutils/etcmerge. mergemaster does a two-way merge between "old+modified" and "new" and so can't tell the difference between old versions and your modifications, so has to err on the safe side except when specifically told about removing things (such as clearing out some specific stuff from earlier rcNG, and pre-rcNG stuff). etcmerge tracks three version: "old", "old+modifications", and "new", so it can identify your modifications and preserve them better, as well as tell if files have been removed. I'm not using it myself currently, but have been thinking of starting to use it ever since Eivind pointed it out to me. Maybe give it a spin and tell me how it works out :-). Robert N M Watson FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects robert@fledge.watson.org Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research