sysmerge without -x .. any consequences ?

[daemonfowl]

Hi everyone !

When upgrading to -current , and running sysmerge -s etc52.tgz without -x xetc52.tgz :
will there be any stability/security consequences if the machine is running X ?

[jggimi]

Certainly. As you know, you will not merge updates from xetc52.tgz.

You should, by this time, be sufficiently self-directed to determine impact yourself:

• You could easily download and inspect it's contents with tar(1).
• You can also look in the Xenocara source tree. The xetc52.tgz fileset is packaged during Xenocara release from contents of two files: /usr/xenocara/distrib/sets/lists/xetc/{mi,md.<arch>}.
• If you don't have the Xenocara source tree you can inspect these from the project's CVS Web interface.

[daemonfowl]

Thank you so much @jggimi !

Not sure if this is off-topic ..
How can I decide whether m instead of i is the right choice ? so that I can avoid the mistakes I fell into last week (misaproppriate use of sysmerge)
If I leave that for later which is default , how then can I proceed for the task-to-accomplish ?

Thank you very much !

[jggimi]

First, because I've said it many times before, and you paid no attention:

BACK UP YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE YOU UPDATE IT!!!

Thank you. I hope I was sufficiently clear. Now, to your question:

Use "i" only when you have no local changes to a file. It installs the file directly from the fileset, and if you had any local changes, they will be lost. If you make a mistake, you can recover from the back up in /var/tmp, or, failing that, from the back up you should have taken.

Use "m" when you need to "merge" your local changes and a revised file. By default, the tool used is sdiff(1). Please, read that man page, and practice merging with a few text files you create yourself, so that you understand how to use the tool.

This post may seem like a spoon feeding. It is. You are addicted to the spoon, my friend.

[jggimi]

When you practice with sdiff(1), @daemonfowl, be sure to use the options used by sysmerge(1). Please see its man page.

[daemonfowl]

Thank you @jggimi !
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