Re: postinstall wiped out my /etc/rc changes

["Steven M. Bellovin" <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Sat, 03 May 2008 09:52:17 -0400
Greg Troxel <gdt%ir.bbn.com@localhost> wrote:

>   I think it's more complex than that.  It isn't obvious -- at least
> not to me -- which files in /etc are "owned" by the system (and hence
> are fair game for auto-replacement), and which are owned by the
>   administrator.  (I raised similar questions a few months ago about
> the power management scripts.)  We need a clear, clean way to make
> that distinction, and to make it obvious to the community.
> 
> See pkgsrc/sysutil/etcmanage.  The rule there is that a file is owned
> by the system if it is marked automatically managed and is unmodified
> from when it was marked (hash registered in db).  I've been updating
> many systems with this for years with no surprises.
> 
Right, but how does it keep straight which files are automatically
managed?  Hard-wired?  How does it track different versions of NetBSD?


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb