Karl E. Jorgensen grabbed a keyboard and wrote: > On Tue, Jan 08, 2013 at 03:42:30PM +0000, David Guntner wrote: >> Hi, all. >> >> Back in the days when I was using Mandriva (which RPM-based), when I >> updated a package that had a configuration file that I had modified, >> urpmi was smart enough to realize it, and wouldn't just blindly wipe it >> out. Instead, it would create a new copy for you to look over and >> merge. I.E., you'd end up with something like: >> >> /etc/somepackage.conf.rpmnew > > Yuck! Better than overwriting a user-modified file. :-) >> Then after doing the update, I could look for files with .rpmnew at the >> end and work on making any changes needed. Heck, we even had a really >> handy script called etc-update which would go through the /etc directory >> looking for .rpmnew files and would then give you the choice of use the >> new file, keep the old file (& delete the new one) or merge the two >> together, which would diff the two and present the changes in groups >> side-by-side and you'd then select to use the left side (original >> content) or use the right side (the new content in the .rpmnew file) and >> you'd go through that until you were done. > > Sounds like my experience of redhat... the bad old days. Hey, the etc-update tool was *very* handy - any kind of situation like this is tedious at best, but it sure as heck beat having to open up two windows side-by-side to go through the old & new config files to copy across new stuff that you wanted to include in your existing config without losing your customized settings. This was especially handy after having done a full system upgrade - you ran the script and it found every single one of them and led you through them, one at a time. >> Regardless of an etc-update like tool, is that how it works in Debian? >> Does it avoid overwriting config files which have been changed by you >> since they were installed, and if so, does it put the new content with >> an easy-to-search-for .something at the end? > > Unless the package maintainer tries to do something fancy and gets it > wrong, Debian will by default do the "right thing" when dealing with > configuration files - gory details at > > http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-pkg-conffiles.html I'll read that, thanks! > In my experience: > > - If you have not modified the configuration, the new config will be > substituted. > > - If you *have* modified the configuration, most interfaces will give > you a diff between your current configuration and ask what to do. I > typically open up a different session and use vim/emacs to merge the > two sets of changes at this point. You mean there will be a bunch of .diff files for you to have to look through? Or something else? > Hope this helps Thanks. --Dave
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