On Sun, Nov 27, 2022 at 9:42 AM Wol <antlists@youngman.org.uk> wrote:

> On 27/11/2022 13:21, John Blinka wrote:
>
> Systemd stores its *distro*supplied* config files in /usr.
>
> It stores its user-supplied config files in /etc.
>
> So when your distro updates systemd, it doesn't go anywhere near your
> local changes.
>
> Dovecot doesn't do it quite the same way, the default distro config
> loads a "config.local" file if it exists. So when your distro updates
> the master config, your local config is untouched.
>
> Postfix afaik just has one humungous config file, so when your distro
> updates the config, all your local changes are trashed :-(


If your goal is to update postfix without clobbering your artfully crafted
config file, then that’s what portage has been doing for me quite reliably
for the past 20-30 years. No effort required to protect anything in /etc
from updates. A new humongous postfix config file gets installed in
/etc/postfix/._cfg<whatever> and your custom config file remains untouched.
It just works (tm). But you know that. I’m thinking I don’t at all
understand your issue.


>
> I don't want to faff about with special copies, backups, origs etc.
> Everything should "just work (tm)".


Fair enough! Not expecting that my faffing about would appeal to anyone but
me. ;)

John