[gentoo-portage-dev] Suggestion: Backup option in make.conf

[gentoo-portage-dev] Suggestion: Backup option in make.conf

[Rafael Fernández López]

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Hi,

My suggestion for portage is: when you do an "emerge -vuD world", you have
to work at the end of the emerging with the /etc config files and see the
differences to know if you want to overwrite file by file or not.

Well, what I want is to have a backup of all them (one backup, and only
one). For that goal, it can be used a new option in make.conf like
"backup_etc_files=yes" if you want to turn this on.

By turning this on, an "emerge -vuD world" can be done in one shot, I mean,
you can do an emerge -vuD world, and all the files could be replaced
(overwrited) by the new ones (etc-update), but you'll be able to access to
your backups if anything is wrong, so you don't have to go file by file
looking at the differences between them.

I suggest to name them "whatever.conf" (our original file) ==> "
whatever.conf.backup" (our backuped file)

Thanks,
Rafael Fernández López.

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Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Suggestion: Backup option in make.conf

[Brian Harring]

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On Sat, Oct 15, 2005 at 06:28:53AM +0200, Rafael Fern?ndez L?pez wrote:
>    Hi,
>    My suggestion for portage is: when you do an "emerge -vuD world", you
>    have to work at the end of the emerging with the /etc config files and
>    see the differences to know if you want to overwrite file by file or
>    not.
>    Well, what I want is to have a backup of all them (one backup, and
>    only one). For that goal, it can be used a new option in make.conf
>    like "backup_etc_files=yes" if you want to turn this on.
>    By turning this on, an "emerge -vuD world" can be done in one shot, I
>    mean, you can do an emerge -vuD world, and all the files could be
>    replaced (overwrited) by the new ones (etc-update), but you'll be able
>    to access to your backups if anything is wrong, so you don't have to
>    go file by file looking at the differences between them.
>    I suggest to name them "whatever.conf" (our original file) ==>
>    "whatever.conf.backup" (our backuped file)
This breaks down pretty quickly... a peacemeal pam upgrade, for 
example can result in you locked out of your system.

Baselayout updates to /etc/passwd can accomplish the same thing, and 
not accounting for /etc/fstab resulting in an unbootable system...
~harring

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Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Suggestion: Backup option in make.conf

[Michiel de Bruijne]

On Saturday 15 October 2005 06:28, Rafael Fernández López wrote:

> By turning this on, an "emerge -vuD world" can be done in one shot, I mean,
> you can do an emerge -vuD world, and all the files could be replaced
> (overwrited) by the new ones (etc-update), but you'll be able to access to
> your backups if anything is wrong, so you don't have to go file by file
> looking at the differences between them.

Like Brian already said this behaviour will definitely break your system. If 
you want to backup "etc-updates" and want to minimize the number of files you 
need to evaluate you should use dispatch-conf instead of etc-update.

dispatch-conf is part of portage and with rcs (version control system) 
integration you have automatically backups of you conf-files. It's also 
possible to;
- automerge files comprising only CVS interpolations (e.g. Header or Id)
- automerge files comprising only whitespace and/or comments
- automerge files that the user hasn't modified

After a while the only files you need tot evaluate are the ones that will 
break your system (examples given by Brian) or change the behaviour of your 
system in a way you don't want (e.g. change your hostname).

-- 
gentoo-portage-dev@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-portage-dev] Suggestion: Backup option in make.conf

[Rafael Fernández López]

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OK, it was just a suggestion. Thanks for your readings !!!

Bye,
Rafael Fernández López.

2005/10/15, Michiel de Bruijne <m.debruijne@hccnet.nl>:
>
> On Saturday 15 October 2005 06:28, Rafael Fernández López wrote:
>
> > By turning this on, an "emerge -vuD world" can be done in one shot, I
> mean,
> > you can do an emerge -vuD world, and all the files could be replaced
> > (overwrited) by the new ones (etc-update), but you'll be able to access
> to
> > your backups if anything is wrong, so you don't have to go file by file
> > looking at the differences between them.
>
> Like Brian already said this behaviour will definitely break your system.
> If
> you want to backup "etc-updates" and want to minimize the number of files
> you
> need to evaluate you should use dispatch-conf instead of etc-update.
>
> dispatch-conf is part of portage and with rcs (version control system)
> integration you have automatically backups of you conf-files. It's also
> possible to;
> - automerge files comprising only CVS interpolations (e.g. Header or Id)
> - automerge files comprising only whitespace and/or comments
> - automerge files that the user hasn't modified
>
> After a while the only files you need tot evaluate are the ones that will
> break your system (examples given by Brian) or change the behaviour of
> your
> system in a way you don't want (e.g. change your hostname).
>
> --
> gentoo-portage-dev@gentoo.org mailing list
>
>


--
Saludos,
Rafael Fernández López.

"A la vista de suficientes ojos todos los errores resultan evidentes" -
Linus Torvalds

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