Re: [gentoo-dev] baselayout redefines /etc/fstab

[Mirian Crzig Lennox]

news@××××××××××××××××××××.uk (Phil Richards) writes:
>
> Of course, what you *really* want is to do a 3-way merge involving
> the "new install" config file, the "previous install" config file, and
> the actual config file that the user has determined they want.  There
> is nothing fundamentally difficult in supporting this type of behaviour,
> but it would need some changes to how emerge installs things in config
> protected areas.  (Anything that changes between releases would then show
> up as a possible "patch" to the real file.)
> Off the top of my head, you could do it by keeping the most recent
> "built" version of a config file rather than deleting it as part of
> the etc-update (stuff it in a subdirectory called ".baseversion"
> or some such - this has the added benefit that if you screw up a config
> file you have a backup of a "default one").

I vehemently agree that the 3-way merge is the only sensible solution.
I can't tell you how many times etc-update has left me scratching my
head wondering, "is this difference mine or gentoo's?"

What I've long thought would be the ideal solution would be to stick
the "default" config files for each version of a package into a
tarbz2ball in the corresponding directory in the /var/db/pkg
hierarchy.  As part of the update process, emerge should perform the
3-way merge with each config file from the old package directory as
ancestor.

cheers,
Mirian

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