[ubuntu-za] Upgrade to Ubuntu 9.04 Modufied configuration

[FineBushPeople.net]

You have two considerations:
1) Your old configuration file has settings in it specific to your
installation - you do not want to lose this because setting up is the
biggest pain of any installation, however
2) The new version of dovecot may have options to set, and different
defaults, than were available in the old version.

Clearly you want the best of both, which is EXACTLY why you get the
options below...

Dr. Johan P. Prinsloo wrote:
>  there are 5 options;
> 1) install the package maintainer's version
>   
Ultimately, you want to upgrade to the package maintainers' version,
unless it contains trivial changes.
> 2) keep the local version currently installed
>   
You DO want to keep the local settings, but you also want to upgrade
> 3) show the differences between the versions
>   

I always do this first, just to get an idea of what the differences are,
and whether I even need to keep the old version's local changes.
Sometimes it is a configuration file for a package you are not using, or
the setting is small and easy to do again yourself later.

> 4) show a side-by-side difference between the versions
>   
Sometimes this is hard to follow, so I don't do it.

> 5) start a new shell to examine the situation
>   

I've never tried this, so
> What am I to do with this?
>   

Generally, if the difference shows that there are important settings you
want to keep, and that the new file has important improvements that you
want, write down the name of the config file (or copy/paste it into an
editor), choose the "keep the local version currently installed" option
2 (or your machine may stop working on reboot), and let the upgrade finish.

Once the upgrade is done, go through the list of configuration files
that need to be upgraded.  The new version of the file, without your
local settings, will be called something like 'dovecot.conf.dpkg-dist'
and will be in the same directory as the active old local config file.
You need to edit your config file to have the changes in the new file
while keeping your settings in the old file.

Being a developer and techie, I use vi in difference mode to merge the
changes (sudo gvim -d old.conf new.conf), but you may be more
comfortable with 'sudo gedit old.conf new.conf' or any other method or
editor.

If you are not very technical, it is likely that you do not have many
local changes so the mission is reduced.

HTH
regards
Charles Oertel