What we keep under /etc

[Eivind Eklund]

On Sun, Oct 10, 2004 at 03:46:58AM +0900, Makoto Matsushita wrote:
> Please consider what FreeBSD users think, not us -- they usually
> change /etc files directly (not using CVS or revision control system,
> nor making a diff against the original), updating the world from a new
> source code _not_ so many times, read written documentation (not
> Makefile nor code itself), ...  IMHO for those users, updating /etc
> files without any warnings could lead a panic, so we must avoid it as
> we can.

We are in perfect agreement here.  And note that the reason I consider
mergemaster to be too broken to be mandatory is that users *do* upgrades
seldom - and in that setting, mergemaster is exceedingly painful to use,
because there are so many differences.

> For my understandings, that's why mergemaster(8) (or "check and help
> updating /etc files" tool) is there.  If mergemaster(8) behaves badly,
> we can fix it -- not changing what "make installworld" does.

We are in perfect agreement here.  (Except possibly for the "can fix
mergemaster", but we can with enough pressure on the maintainer.)

> > Since mergemaster(8) is considered as a mandatory tool for admin (I
> > hope nobody objects),
> 
> eivind> I object.
> 
> Ouch:)  Yes I know that some users doesn't update /etc if installworld
> as you mentioned.  However, according to src/UPDATING, mergemaster(8)
> is listed in source-code upgrade procedure -- and many users knows
> what mergemaster(8) is.  Many guys mentioned to use mergemaster(8) on
> current@/stable@ list.  No matter what you dislike or not, it seems
> that it's mandatory one....

Updating /etc has (IMO unfortunately) become a mandatory step for
updates.  However, I think that in lieu of how the world actually works
in practice (users refuse to use it because it is so bad), we should NOT
consider the mergemaster tool itself mandatory.

I believe the only reason mergemaster is tolerable for most developers
is that they upgrade much, much more frequently than most users.  When I
talk to actual users, I find that they "know they should", but try to
avoid it.

> eivind> The majority do (in order of frequence, high to low) manual
> eivind> updates or don't update /etc unless they have to or use
> eivind> etcmerge or write their own scripts.
> 
> you also think that it would be better updating /etc files by some
> other tools (well, I'll try using etcmerge later, thank you), not by
> "make installworld", right?

Yes.

Eivind.