Re: dumat Q

[David <bouncingcats@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 24 Mar 2025 at 20:24, Andrew M.A. Cater <amacater@einval.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 03:51:49PM -0400, gene heskett wrote:
> > On 3/24/25 15:32, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
> > > On Mon, Mar 24, 2025 at 02:51:14PM -0400, gene heskett wrote:

[...]  (= aggressive deletion to save readers' time)

> I think this is yet another X-Y problem.

[...]

> Gene - just build another workable system as simply as you
> practicably can

Installing 'etckeeper' on that system, before making changes
to any default system configuration, could be very helpful.

[...]

> and there's so many things you've done that no-one
> can unravel what is just a Gene problem and what's a bug.
> Simplify, simplify, simplify - and when you hit problems, tell us all
> *exactly* what you did last. The history command is your friend here.

Friends are a good idea. 'etckeeper' can be everyone's friend here.

When Gene has a problem involving some config file, if 'etckeeper' is
installed then we could ask Gene to show us the output of
  cd /etc && git log -p -- /etc/somefile
which will show the original file content, plus a sequence of diffs
showing what changes occurred subsequently, and when.