Re: What happens when you upgrade a package with modified config files?
Hi
On Tue, Jan 08, 2013 at 06:29:02PM +0000, David Guntner wrote:
> 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. :-)
True. But still yuck. Perhaps I'm just too used to Debian :-)
> >> 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?
No - it will prompt interactively during installation. There are
options on apt/dpkg to avoid the prompts by always doing either (a)
install the new version or (b) leave the config file untouched.
>
> > Hope this helps
>
> Thanks.
>
> --Dave
>
>
--
Karl E. Jorgensen
Reply to: