Stupid end-user tricks: darcs for /etc and /boot

[Alexander Skwar]

Morgan Greywolf wrote:
> Alexander Skwar wrote:
>>> One Gentoo user says that etc-update can 
>>> completely hose the system if you are not careful.
>>>     
>>
>> Yes, that was what he wrote. And it's plain wrong. You don't
>> accidentally type "-5<enter>". Sure, *could* happen - but in
>> the same way, the Ubuntu partition tools make it easy to wipe
>> your system, if you're not careful. I mean, you could easily
>> do "sudo fdisk /dev/hda<enter>o<enter>w<enter>", couldn't you?
>>   
> Well, I think you actually oversimplify the issues with etc-update.  It
> *is* easy to hose up your system, just not in 5 minutes.
> 
> First off, eventually if you don't update those ._cfg000* files your
> system *will* be hosed because your configuration files will eventually
> not match the software you have installed.

That's right. You'd see this as a fault of etc-update? I would
not, as you've got these problems, even when you don't usually
use etc-update but maybe dispatch. Because of that, I don't
see this as a problem of etc-update.

> Secondly, sometimes the automerge will seriously break your config
> files.  At one point there was a _severe_ bug in automerge.  And there
> may have been other times.

I specifically ignore bugs. But you are right, a bug in such a
crucial tool as etc-update can lead to bad consequences. You're
right.

> Finally, failure to keep those /etc files up-to-date will eventually
> break your portage, because the emerge scripts will eventually not be
> able ot handle some vary old config files.

This might be true - seems that I'm not long enough with Gentoo or
maybe just run etc-update "too often".

Alexander Skwar
-- 
"The triumph of libertarian anarchy is nearly (in historical terms) at
hand... *if* we can keep the Left from selling us into slavery and the
Right from blowing us up for, say, the next twenty years."
-- Eric Rayman, usenet guy, about nanotechnology