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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 5:30 am    Post subject: config files after world update Reply with quote

i updated world just now after doing a rsync and i had 24 config files that need to be checked for updating....most were nothing but i check the diff between thenm and keep the newer ones with the updated headers and make the changes that need to be made...is this the right way to do this...it takes a bit of time...what does everyone else do with these?

thanks
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filter69
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 5:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

i usually nano them on console 1 and 2 compare them and go well crap
ill keep the old one
but yea your doing it right and it DOES take forever
but lemme tell ya i did export CONFIG_PROTECT="" ONCE!
and it screwed my system up so bad i just started over
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 6:02 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Right and you can always have it overwrite config files that you don't manually configure using:
Code:

CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/wget /etc/rc.d"

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dArkMaGE
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 6:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

although ive never used it, the etc-update tool in the gentoolkit ebuild is supposed to simplify the task of comparing config files and updating those that you want.
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

whats it suppose to do....like automatically compare adn make the relavent changes to the new config files for you....LOL...yeah right....really though what doe sthe tool do?
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 8:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It's a easier way to use diff and merge files, so forth and so on.....Back up your etc directory ;)
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 12:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, looking at the diffs between /etc files does take more time, but that's the way it's Supposed To Be Done.

I've used the Chevy vs. Ferrari analogy before, but it's still an accurate one. You can use RedHat, Mandrake or even Debian if all you want is a Chevy -- something that gets you from A to B safely and reliably. Gentoo is a Ferrari. It will get you there faster than just about any other distro out there. The trade-off is that you have to spend more time tuning it in order for it to run properly.

Gentoo is not the right distribution for everyone. Some folks just want a Chevy and that's fine. You should only use Gentoo if you really want a Ferrari and are willing to spend the necessary time maintaining it.

--kurt

P.S. an added benefit of manually looking at the /etc diffs is that you gain a better understanding for how linux really works and, as a result, it makes you a better sysadmin. (IMO)
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 5:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yea, I definitely agree with that. By using Gentoo for roughly 6 months, I have learned far far more than my experience with a more "friendly" but dumbed-down linux distro.
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

no i have no problem doing them the diff /blah/blah /blah/blah way..i was just making sure this was the correct way to do it...actually the coolest thing about gentoo is that you have to be involved with it i ran mandrake for one day after crashing out of gentoo and getting frustrated and was totally bored with mandrake by that night...i am not knocking mandrake now so just chill....its just that this make more sense to me if you want to learn about linux...

ciao

rommel
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 9:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Haha klieber theres an analogy like the one I used to compare gentoo to a car :)
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 10:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Next question is... what if you don't know what the stuff inside the files mean? I emerged blackdown java and alsa drivers.
Ended up with 24 or 28 files that needed to be looked at. I diff'd them, and most changes don't seem to be important, but
I really don't know. The ones I'm concerned about are these:
Code:

/etc/._cfg0000_devfsd.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_fstab
/etc/._cfg0000_group
/etc/._cfg0000_hosts
/etc/._cfg0000_inittab
/etc/._cfg0000_inputrc
/etc/._cfg0000_modules.autoload
/etc/._cfg0000_networks
/etc/._cfg0000_nsswitch.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_profile
/etc/._cfg0000_protocols
/etc/._cfg0000_rc.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_services
/etc/._cfg0000_shells

I haven't examined theese yet, but I was wondering if any could potentially crash my system? I'd really rather not learn how
to recover from a crash right now :).

Thanks
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 11:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kanuslupus wrote:
Next question is... what if you don't know what the stuff inside the files mean?


You go out and buy yourself a decent unix sysadmin book and start reading. :)

kanuslupus wrote:
I haven't examined theese yet, but I was wondering if any could potentially crash my system?


Some of those files are pretty darn important. fstab controls what file systems get mounted at boot. group is your group memberships. inittab controls your startup script process, etc. All those files look important to one degree or another.

Basically, there aren't too many files within /etc that aren't important in one way or another.

Truly -- you need to have a decent understanding of linux before you start mucking around much with those config files. I would get that book asap.

In the mean time, you can try the man pages as well as searching google. They may not be the easiest way to learn about this stuff, but it should at least allow you to wade your way through those files. (wade carefully. :))

Also, make a backup of your /etc directory in its current form. That way, if you completely hose something, you can boot to cd or floppy, mount the root partition and copy the backup files to restore your system to a working state.

--kurt
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 11:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

well sometimes its kinda overwhelming...but if you just write them down and then do the

#diff /etc/._cfg0000_devfsd.conf /etc/devfsd.conf

for example....now obviously this one and fstab are pretty important and you should write down the differnces...i am not sure i am doing it correctly but if i didnt make changes to the script then i just mv the ._cfg000 file and overwrite the old one...but things that you set up when you where setting up gentoo you would have to keep your changes...like modules.autoload, initd.conf/net, devfsd.conf, fstab....but of the 24 files it said i had to update i mv'd all after reconfiguring the ones that needed appending....lines that begin with a # in the new cfg files will not actually do anything but as the rest of the system evolves and changes these changes you might want to uncomment at some point so i felt it better to have the new files rather then the old ones even if the differences were nothing more then the headers.

ciao
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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2002 11:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

kanuslupus wrote:
Next question is... what if you don't know what the stuff inside the files mean? I emerged blackdown java and alsa drivers.
Ended up with 24 or 28 files that needed to be looked at. I diff'd them, and most changes don't seem to be important, but
I really don't know. The ones I'm concerned about are these:
Code:

/etc/._cfg0000_devfsd.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_fstab
/etc/._cfg0000_group
/etc/._cfg0000_hosts
/etc/._cfg0000_inittab
/etc/._cfg0000_inputrc
/etc/._cfg0000_modules.autoload
/etc/._cfg0000_networks
/etc/._cfg0000_nsswitch.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_profile
/etc/._cfg0000_protocols
/etc/._cfg0000_rc.conf
/etc/._cfg0000_services
/etc/._cfg0000_shells

I haven't examined theese yet, but I was wondering if any could potentially crash my system? I'd really rather not learn how
to recover from a crash right now :).

Thanks


I would assume there were more packages updated then these two, as these by no means could cause all these files to change.

And secondly I assume that in most cases the only difference you will see are the changed and/or added cvs headers :-)
I made an emerge devfsd and got a new system-base installed,
which ended in 28 files in /etc having a new cvs-headers while only 3 had changed significantly.

And I second klieber: backup /etc! If you search the forums you'll find a decent little init script that does this at system start for you
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pjp
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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2002 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the info. To get it out of the way, I installed a backup script that runs every boot, so I should have several iterations of /etc/ backed up. Also, I move current files to filename.old.todays-date, that way I always have the previous as a reference (will probably need to get rid of some shortly).

As far as what I've emerged, java and alsa were the most recent. The other day I installed 3 or 4 window managers, flvm, enlightenment, windowmaker, maybe 1 or 2 other small ones. Gnome was installed long ago, so it wasn't that. Oh, I just recalled, I installed openquicktime and quicktime4linux. Maybe one of those was the culprit. In what I've diff'd so far, changes seem really minimal.

Any books recommended? I've bought quite a few in the past, but never managed to get a running linux system. I'm assuming most are fairly outdated for all but the basics. Typically, I've found the "bible" type books to be more for those that know what they are doing and just need a reference once in a while. I shall hit the store this evening (or tomorrow).
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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2002 12:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

kanuslupus wrote:
Any books recommended?


The nice thing about unix adminstration is that the basics have remained fairly constant over the years and linux closely models the unix world. So, even an older book can still have some good info.

Regarding specific recommendations, I like the O'Reilly book. It explains the concepts behind things, rather than just listing commands. It covers linux, bsd and other forms of unix as well, so it's a fairly comprehensive book.

--kurt
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