On 2013-06-05 16:28, Greg Troxel wrote:
Martin Husemann <martin%duskware.de@localhost> writes:On Wed, Jun 05, 2013 at 11:53:32AM +0200, Johnny Billquist wrote:How can that be a bug in etcupdate? All etcupdate tries to do is match /etc to what an /etc would look like on a virgin system.I bet etcupdate does not delete /etc/resolv.conf for example, but this is kindof a provocative stretch.It's a fair comment, actually, and etc management systems should not remove files they did not install. (etcmanage also behaves this way.)
Agree.
What I meant is: some changes to /etc/ttys are special and need special treatement by etcupdate - on/off, speed changes for serial devices, maybe more should never be merged.Generally, etc management systems should apply changes to the etc.tgz files to the real etc but should not overwrite any local changes.
Right.
etcupdate appears to be too aggressive. etcmanage errs on the other side, and essentially never overwrites local changes.
Just to once more point this out - etcupdate is not too aggressive. It never overwrites anything, unless explicitly instructed to do so. etcupdate is very interactive. It is not a batch tool. Any changes suggested needs to be approved by the person running etcupdate.
In my view, etcupdate is the best tool I've encountered for the job. However, it does require you to actually read, understand, and act upon a lot of information. It is not a good tool for someone who don't know what's in /etc, and it is not a good tool for the impatient. But it will actually allow you to merge your local changes with the changes introduced in the system distribution, in the way that you actually want the end result to be, and skip parts that you don't agree with.
Johnny