mergemaster tips

[Doug Barton]

Step one with mergemaster, read the man page, thoroughly. It also helps to
read the sdiff man page. Step two, ALWAYS back up /etc before starting.
That way, at least you can undo anything you screw up.

On Sun, 20 Apr 2003, Anton Zavrin wrote:

> Hi, give me some tips please, first of all, first screen:
> =============================================
> *** The directory specified for the temporary root environment,
>     /var/tmp/temproot, exists.  This can be a security risk if untrusted
>     users have access to the system.
>
>   Use 'd' to delete the old /var/tmp/temproot and continue
>   Use 't' to select a new temporary root directory
>   Use 'e' to exit mergemaster
>
>   Default is to use /var/tmp/temproot as is
>
> How should I deal with this? [Use the existing /var/tmp/temproot]
> ==============================================
> Should I "d" the old temproot or should I just hit "Enter"?

That depends. If the /var/tmp/temproot is left behind from an old run,
then yes. If what you're actually trying to do is re-run mergemaster over
a temproot directory that you've just recently merged, then what you
really want to do is run 'mergemaster -r' instead, which will not prompt
you this way. In general though, deleting this is the safest bet.

> Second thing, when I actually merging files, what I do is I hit "v" -
> variously include common lines and then I hit "m" to merge, primarily
> using "r" right side.
> By "verbosely include common lines" I only "Guess" that the mergemaster
> will include everything common from both files and then by using "r"
> switch I'm adding everything "fresh" from the new files (the files I
> just cvsuped),

Actually mergemaster isn't doing this, it's sdiff. Also, I don't recommend
merging every file. The merge option is there for files that you've edited
on that system, so that you can easily preserve the local edits. If you
haven't edited the file, you should just [i]nstall it. This will be much
less confusing for you. Finally, I'm not sure that the v option to sdiff
(include common lines) is a good idea either. mergemaster runs sdiff with
the suppress common lines option because it's a lot less confusing. What I
generally do with a confusing merge is to use 'eb' which means "edit both"
in your favorite editor, usually vi. One thing I've also found helpful is
to include a comment on the line above anything I add to tell me what I
did, and why.

I recommend that you back up what you've got, read the man page, and then
do 'mergemaster -s' to make sure that you've not missed something in a
previous run. If you find anything unclear in the man page, let me know.

Hope this helps,

Doug

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