With your help, I've come up with a plan.

I unpacked the distro tarballs for 1.5 and 1.5.2 in two directory trees,
with each tarball in its own "root".

I then compared each "virgin" extracted tarball between 1.5 and 1.5.2 and
got a report of what was same, different, and in one and not the other.
I now have a list of files in each tarball that have gone away or changed names
betwixt 1.5 and 1.5.2.

I then did a compare of the virgin 1.5 etc tarball (which is _more_ than
/etc, by the way) with my running system to see what I've changed
since installation.

The plan:

	1. Build a script that will delete files that are in
	the 1.5 distro but not in 1.5.2 in the same place.  I've found
	that not only have some things moved, but there are a
	bunch of libraries that have changed names, so they
	are effectively in one system and not the other.

	2. Unpack the 1.5.2 etc tarball somewhere.  Using the 1.5 vs 1.5.2
	diff and the 1.5 vs running diff, edit the /etc parts that
	I have to change to match running system.  Set this
	aside.

	3. Run two backups of the whole system.  Paranoia rules!
	(backup: n: the desired state after this operation ;-> )

	4. In scheduled "upgrade" time, (but still nominally "up") unpack all
	but the etc tarballs (with --unlink or moral equivalent) on top
	of the running system.  Put my kernel in /netbsd. (I have to
	build my own)

	5. Downtime - goto single user.

	6. "move" the 1.5.2+etc to the root. (not sure of the simplest,
	most reliable way to do this.)

	7. Run the delete script to clean out "moved" stuff.

	8. Do I dare run installboot with the 1.5.2 ofwboot to update
	/boot?

	9. Reboot.  Smile.

I have a test system.  I'll be trying this all out with a "mirror"
of my production system.  If it works, I'll post my scripts and results.

Thanks for your help,,.

-dgl-