mergmaster and /etc/master.passwd

[Kevin D. Kinsey, DaleCo, S.P.]

ptitoliv wrote:

> Hi everybody,
>
> I am trying to upgrade my FreeBSD box from 5.2.1 to 5.3. All the
> building operations were successful and the kernel installation
> too. So following the handbook, i made the mergemaster in order
> to merge configurations files. But I have a problem about merging
> /etc/master.passwd. I saw that there were new systems accounts
> in RELENG_5.3 but I have my propers accounts which I don't want
> to loose. So my question is : how to merge correctly and properly
> the /etc/master.passwd file. I saw in the help of mergemaster the v
> options which allows to include common files but it doesn't seems to 
> work.
>
> Does anybody can help me in order to make this merge safely ?
>
> Thank you for your answers
>
> Best Regards,
> Ptitoliv 


[BTW, this really belongs on questions at freebsd.org ... ]

If in doubt, it's probably best to do the merging by
hand.  Make a backup of your current passwd file,
and edit the passwd file, including the new system
accounts in the "temporary" version of master.passwd
(which should be under /var/tmp/temproot/etc/).

This is essentially what mergemaster does anyway,
but it's not automatic and therefore under your control.

If you wish to actually use mergemaster to do this,
you'll wish to answer "m" (for *merge*) when it asks
you what to do for this file.  It will then display the two
files, yours and the new one, line by line, in a sort of
"split screen" mode.  Simply answer "r" or "l" to say
"use the right hand version of this line" or "use the
lefthand version of this line".  Since your user accounts
aren't in the new default version, you should be
able to pick your accounts easily, because you'll have
a choice between your account names and some
blank lines.  But it's still a good idea to have a backup.

And be sure and take a look at the finished product
before you reboot ;-).

HTH,

Kevin Kinsey