Re: Package Updates

[Bob McClure Jr <robertmcclure earthlink net>]

On Thu, Feb 12, 2004 at 07:17:20PM -0800, Bruce McDonald wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have finished updating (Freshening) my RH9 installation with all the
> Bugzilla updated packages.
> Now I have a few of questions.
> 
> There are now config files that have endings of .rpmnew and .rpmsave, I
> assume rpmnew is the new file written by the update and rpmsave is the old
> file saved when the update wrote the new file.  Correct?
> 
> Config files that have these are:
> /etc/postfix/main.cf (main.cf.rpmnew),
> /etc/sane.d/dll.conf (dll.conf.rpmsave),
> /etc/mail/sendmail.cf (sendmail.cf.rpmnew)
> /etc/mail submit.cf (submit.cf.rpmnew)
>  
> Will the updates work with the old configs or do I need to regenerate these
> files after the update?
> 
> Thank you for your assistance.
> 
> Bruce

I'm not sure what criteria are used to determine whether you get a
.rpmnew or .rpmsave, but here's my guess.  Any change in the config
file that has obvious benefits and is not likely to break your current
customizations, will replace your config file with the new one
(possibly modified - I don't know), and the old one becomes *.rpmsave.

On the other hand, if the new config might well break your existing
configuration and/or the improvements are not essential, then the new
config is left as *.rpmnew.

In both cases, I recommend comparing the current config with the
.rpm[save|new] and either merge your configuration into the .rpmnew
and rename it, or merge what you want from the .rpmsave into the new
config.

For those not afraid of Emacs, it has an excellent buffer compare
function you can use to migrate changes in one file to another similar
file.  Its comparison function is much more powerful than diff.  It's
in the Tools menu at "Compare (Ediff)".

Cheers,
-- 
Bob McClure, Jr.             Bobcat Open Systems, Inc.
robertmcclure earthlink net  http://www.bobcatos.com
God promised a safe landing, not smooth sailing.