Re: [gentoo-user] Re: default CONFIG_PROTECT behavior

[Rich Freeman]

On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 3:27 AM Neil Bothwick <neil@××××××××××.uk> wrote:
>
> There are other config managers that handle this differently, if you
> don't like etc-update try another. I tried a few some years ago and
> settled on conf-update, others swear by cfg-update.

Since nobody else is shilling it, I will.  I don't think I could stand
Gentoo without cfg-update.  When I run Arch in a container it makes me
want to port it (maybe Arch has a similar solution - I don't use it
enough to know).

With the automatic 3-way merges 95% of the time I don't even look at
config file changes.  If the parts of the files I've customized
haven't changed, then the diff gets re-applied.  Once in a while I get
a merge conflict and then meld pops up showing me a 3-way diff.

I'll admit that it has a few issues.  One is that it isn't obvious how
to handle manual 3-way merges.  The right version is the new upstream
file.  The left version is your current file.  The middle is the
previous upstream file, so the diffs on the left show what you changed
before, and the diffs on the right show what upstream changed.
Chances are you'll want to pass through some of those, so just hit all
the merge-to-left buttons on those.  I usually just save the new file
and don't touch the previous two, so that cfg-update correctly saves
the original upstream file for re-use.  However, perhaps I should be
saving a new middle version merged with the upstream.  I haven't
confirmed exactly how it behaves.

Upstream is largely dead on cfg-update, and I'm basically nursing it
along since I can't live without it.  Feel free to give it a shot.

In the beginning it won't be much better than dispatch-conf, until it
builds up its library of past changes.

Oh, the other tool you'll want to use is etckeeper to manage /etc in a
git repo and auto-commit changes/etc with package manager hooks.  That
is a cross-distro tool, and will save your butt if you mess something
up.

-- 
Rich