On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 06:03:03PM +0100, Dominique Dumont wrote:
> Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@debian.org> writes:
> > Actually, this is something I've been pondering about for a
> > while. Having /etc under some VCS (as many of us, I presume, already
> > have by the means of etckeeper and similar tools), diff file merging
> > can be seriously improved.
>
> I tend to disagree.
Well, it depends on how dpkg currently handles merges. My impression
(as a user, never looked at the actual code) is that it not even tries
to merge, it simply discovers that the local file is not pristine and
then asks the user. On the contrary, every VCS I'm aware of at least
_tries_ a merge, "succeeding" when changes do not affect the same
patch hunk.
Of course that would mean that dpkg should be made aware of the
difference between the last pristine configuration file installed on
the machine, and the configuration file the package being installed is
shipping.
Also, there is of course no guaranteed that no conflicting changes
lead to a configuration file semantically sound, but AFAIU you have no
guarantee of that with Config::Model either. They are both about
syntax only.
> >From a user point of view, you will get the same diff output whether a
> SCM performs the diff or ucf performs the diff.
>
> So your proposal will probably not help my mother-in-law to upgrade
> the packages on her system ;-)
I disagree. It will not help your mother-in-law once she is faced with
the diff, but it will decrease dramatically the number of times she
will be faced with that. ... so maybe we should strive for both?
Cheers.
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
Dietro un grande uomo c'è ..| . |. Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
sempre uno zaino ...........| ..: |.... Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime
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