Re: how to view config file changes without running an upgrade?

[Harald Dunkel <harald.dunkel@aixigo.de>]

On 03/21/18 17:18, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 04:46:16PM +0100, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> > Its pretty painful to resolve config file conflicts in (lets say)
> > dovecot at upgrade time, putting EMail access for +200 users at risk.
> > I have to check in advance. Resolving config file conflicts during
> > the upgrade is too late.
>
> Then you need a second system, to test the upgrades on.  If you don't
> keep one around at all times, then you could create one on the fly
> with debootstrap, rsync your current configs into it, and test the
> upgrade in there.

We have tons of stage systems. EMail stage systems are especially painful.
They are constantly out of sync to the production host, making it even
more necessary to review the diffs between the config files in the most
recent packages and the installed files *before* running an upgrade.

Dovecot was just an example, anyway.

Regards
Harri