New dpkg proposes to show conffile diffs, which I find is a nice
feature.  However, it only shows the diffs between the current
settings (conffile) and new version (conffile.dpkg-new).

When possible (ie. conffile.dpkg-dist exists), I find that 2 diffs,
one between conffile.dpkg-dist and conffile, and the other between
conffile.dpkg-dist and conffile.dpkg-new, would be more useful.  That
is you will be able to look at your own changes, and at the
maintainer's changes.

As an example, when recently dealing with gdm.conf upgrade, I was able
to do:

# diff conffile.dpkg-dist conffile.dpkg-new >conffile.diff
# patch conffile <conffile.diff

(obviously, I tried "patch --dry-run" first ;)


This would advocate a copy of conffile to conffile.dpkg-dist on
install, so that the conffile mechanism can work at its best without
relying on the sysadmin to manually create the copy before editing a
conffile (which I try to always do myself, but happen to forget).

I think what would ultimately be more usefull is a 3 way diff and the
option to patch up to the new version. The diff3 program is commonly used
for such things.

Jason

Jason Gunthorpe writes:
 > > When possible (ie. conffile.dpkg-dist exists), I find that 2 diffs,
 > > one between conffile.dpkg-dist and conffile, and the other between
 >
 > I think what would ultimately be more usefull is a 3 way diff and the
 > option to patch up to the new version. The diff3 program is commonly used
 > for such things.

Yes, but I'd expect more people to be familiar with diff ouput than
with diff3 output :(

Previously Yann Dirson wrote:

I actually implemented this partially. The main problem was that to do
this properly we need to keep a copy of the unmodified
configuration-file somewhere. Perhaps dpkg should copy them into
/var/lib/dpkg/conffiles or so?

Wichert.

Wichert Akkerman writes:
 > Previously Yann Dirson wrote:
 > > Yes, but I'd expect more people to be familiar with diff ouput than
 > > with diff3 output :(
 >
 > I actually implemented this partially. The main problem was that to do
 > this properly we need to keep a copy of the unmodified
 > configuration-file somewhere. Perhaps dpkg should copy them into
 > /var/lib/dpkg/conffiles or so?

dpkg already keeps them, when you upgrade a package whose connfile you
modified, and answer "keep mine" when dpkg asks you the question.
I thought about extending this to all conffile installations, but one
may argue that those files, being in /etc/, can be changed or erased
by some people.  Probably /var/ is a good idea.

<prod/><prod/><prod/>

For the Nth time today, I was presented with a choice like the
following:

Configuration file `/etc/Muttprintrc'
 ==> File on system created by you or by a script.
 ==> File also in package provided by package maintainer.
   What would you like to do about it ?  Your options are:
    Y or I  : install the package maintainer's version
    N or O  : keep your currently-installed version
      D     : show the differences between the versions
      Z     : background this process to examine the situation
 The default action is to keep your current version.
*** Muttprintrc (Y/I/N/O/D/Z) [default=N] ? i
Installing new version of config file /etc/Muttprintrc ...

Normally I would have ignored this and just done what I always do (i.e.
check the differences, and if the maintainer's version looked like a
significant improvement, install that and go back later to add my
changes, otherwise keep my version), but last night I was at a demo of
FreeBSD.  The administration functions of FreeBSD are sometimes
shockingly similar to Debian, including the upgrading of package
configuration files EXCEPT that they have a nice, convieniently-placed
option to merge differences interactively.

Would it be too much to ask for an option

      M     : merge differences interactively

and the related option (if M is called)

      C     : install custom-merged version

at this point and just call sdiff and let admins pick blocks of
differences manually?  I know that it is not as wonderfully automatic as
using a three-way merge, but it should be simple to implement.  This
wishlist item has been hanging around for more than two years now.

P.S. You might want to merge this wishlist item with #120152, since they
seem to be pratically identical.

+1 from me for /var/lib/dpkg/conffiles/etc/foorc and a three-way
merge, similar to what CVS does maybe, plus a way to display the
diff between the old version and the installed version, with or
without applying them to the new version and installing or edi-
ting the result.

Any chances on seeing this soon?

//mirabilos

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