Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Conary - dispatch-conf

[Ed Grimm]

On Thu, 28 Oct 2004 LinuxGuy@×××.net wrote:
> On 21:55 Wed 27 Oct     , Ed Grimm wrote:
>> On Mon, 25 Oct 2004 LinuxGuy@×××.net wrote:
>>
>>> Hi there, i've been putting in alot of work on dispatch-conf lately,
>>> adding features i personally need, and features that it should have.
>>> I have a new version of dispatch-conf posted at bug:
>>> http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=68618
>>>
>>> i believe it will solve one of your major problems with
>>> dispatch-conf as i have added a new option called "config file
>>> freezing" which allows you to specify config files you never want to
>>> be overwritten, like /etc/fstab /etc/password and /etc/group and so
>>> on. instead it will take the new files that portage tries to pass
>>> out and apply them to rcs (or archive them through whatever meathod
>>> you are using). I'm also taking suggestions on features to be added,
>>> so if you, or anyone else feels there are other features that should
>>> be added email me about it and we'll talk about what/how should be
>>> added.
>>
>> This does sound promising.  Note that I cannot fathom any reason why I'd
>> want Gentoo's suggested updates archived into RCS for frozen files,
>> unless they were not placed on the main branch - I use RCS to track my
>> own changes, and I don't appreciate <censored>.
>>
>> Ed
>
> A good point i suppose, my reasoning for adding the new files to rcs
> was in case there were important changes in the new gentoo files that
> you needed, though i suppose those files can be grabbed by
> recompiling, however if it's a large app that can be a bit of a
> hassle. perhaps the new configs for frozen files should be added to a
> different archive? or perhaps to another file? filefoo_frozen or
> something? i'd like to hear what others think about the issue.
>
<snip updates plug>
>
> another feature i was thinking of adding was a simple command line based
> way to add/subtract frozen files, like euse -E and -D. anything think
> this is a good or bad idea?
>
> lastly, Ed, i was a little confused by your last statment:
> and I don't appreciate <censored>.
> i can't think of a swear that fits here, should i be offended? or was
> it just a joke? either way, i missed it. oh well.
>
> i appreciate any feedback on this so i can continue to improve
> dispatch-conf

Not just one word.  I think it would've been more clear had I ended with

    and I don't appreciate <rant censored>

but I didn't think about the inclusion of that additional word.  Note
that the censored rant was actually more directed at some various
proprietary programs with which I've interacted, but the behavior you
were talking about sounded the same.

However, I've since learned that it only updates the RCS in its own RCS
store, leaving the default RCS stores alone.  So we're all happy on this
point.


That having been said... there's one lesson you should've taken from
etc-update: vimdiff support.

Specifically, there appears to be no documentation regarding the
interactive merge option, and it appears to assume a fixed screen
resolution which is not similar enough to my screen resolution, editing
the new file with $EDITOR requires that I make all of my previous edits
by hand, by memory, the first time, and under no circumstances does it
allow you to view the differences while one updates.

I suspect that one could add support for this option by testing for the
existance of the pager option, and if it is not defined, invoke the
'diff' program without piping its output anywhere.  (Note: I have gotten
some success using a pager of 'cat'.  But vimdiff is not really happy
with this option; it complains, and there's added latency, sometimes in
unpleasant parts of the update.)

Note that the behavior of dispatch-conf without one of its current
mandatory options is probably not what is intended.  I cannot be certain
of what was intended, but I'd expect it to completely abort, which is
not what it did.  I'm not fully certain of what it did, but it was
something with RCS in its own tree, which did not touch any of my files
so far as I'm able to tell.

Ed

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