On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Dwight Tuinstra wrote:

> I'm new to NetBSD, so please bear with me.  I need to know what happens
> to the files in /etc during an upgrade, since I'll be tracking 1.5_ALPHA
> as part of a research effort on log-based file systems.

As far as I know, NetBSD doesn't update the real /etc/ files. I think this
is supposed to be done manually. Even the
http://www.netbsd.org/Documentation/current/ says:  "You may need to merge
in any changes that have been made to files in /etc. "

>   2)  What's the best way to examine /etc and
>       resolve differences between old and
>       upgraded files?  In particular, is there
>       anything like FreeBSD's "mergemaster"?

I didn't know what the FreeBSD mergemaster was. Its man page says:

     ... When the script finds a change in the new file, or there is
     no installed version of the new file it gives you four options to
     deal with it.  You can install the new file as is, delete the new
     file, merge the old and new files (as appropriate) using sdiff(1) or
     leave the file in the temporary root environment to merge by hand
     later. ...

This is similar to Debian's routines for upgrading packages. I think a
solution like this would be excellent. Is anyone working on anything like
this (use old, use new, show differences, merge differences, or manually
do later)??

   Jeremy C. Reed
   http://www.reedmedia.net/