Gentoo Archives: gentoo-amd64

From: Scott Stoddard <scott@×××××××××××.ca>
To: gentoo-amd64@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Update config files
Date: Mon, 09 Jan 2006 22:02:52
Message-Id: 43C2DD15.5080906@cs.ubishops.ca
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-amd64] Update config files by Mark Haney
1 Mark Haney wrote:
2 > Nuitari wrote:
3 >
4 >>>
5 >>> What's the best way to update config files? I am a big fan of RH's
6 >>> method of dealing with them, and can't stand the way Debian does it,
7 >>> so how do the majority of Gentoo users manage their config files?
8 >>>
9 >>
10 >> with etc-update
11 >>
12 > I know that, but is there a 'bet practices' to use with 'etc-update'?
13 >
14 >
15
16 Well, honestly I think people make too big a deal of the 'complexity' of
17 doing their etc-updating.
18
19 Some general ideas:
20
21 It's assumed that you have built your own gentoo system from the
22 instructions in the handbook. That being the case, you should be
23 familiar with the config files you've changed (everyone seems to believe
24 it's a lot of files, but it's really not that many)
25
26 First, using colordiff helps, but really I find that just stretching out
27 your terminal to the full width of the screen helps most (just to avoid
28 as much line-wrap as possible).
29
30 *** So, when I do an etc-update, I look at the list of all the files
31 needing to be updated. I note the numbers of only the ones that I have
32 made changes to - either in the initial setup of my box, or since then.
33
34 Then I look specifically at them and usually just q right out of the
35 'less' environment and do an interactive merge (the additional time this
36 takes over just 'taking the new modifications' for changes unrelated to
37 my own is negligible). Take the (l)eft side for stuff that I still want
38 to keep as my settings and the (r)ight side for the new changes. (I
39 find that I almost never have to actually edit a line during this
40 process...it's usually just one or the other)
41
42 After I repeat this process for those files I noted in ***, which
43 honestly is usually no more that 5 or 10, I just automerge the rest with
44 a -5.
45
46 The whole process usually takes 2-3 minutes.
47
48 Scott.
49 --
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