VDQ : merging f7 configs

[Todd Zullinger]

Beartooth wrote:
>    On one, but only one, of our F7 machines yum update often pauses with 
> some such query as this : 
> 
> Package nss_ldap: merging configuration for file "/etc/ldap.conf":
> By default, RPM would keep your local version and rename the new one to /
> etc/ldap.conf.rpmnew
> What do you want to do ?
> - diff the two versions (d)
> - do the default RPM action (q)
> - install the package's version (i)
> - merge interactively with vim (v)
> - background this process and examine manually (z)
> Your answer ?

It sounds as if you've installed the yum-merge-conf package.  It will
do this.  (Though you should have to add --merge-conf to the yum command
line to get this behavior.  Perhaps you've got an alias that adds this
option?)

> My default has usually been q, figuring the hotshots would pick the
> safest thing as the default. Is that so? Should I be moving old
> files to backups and .rpmnew files to current according to any
> particular criteria? Is there any way of doing it in mass that's
> safe?

Basically, if there were an automatic way to safely merge the config
files, it'd likely already be done.  It's not an easy task.  This is
why rpm defaults to creating the .rpmnew or .rpmsave files when it
encounters a file that is locally modified and is marked in the
package as a config file.  You typically want to take a look at the
differences between the existing config and the .rpm{new,save} file to
see if you want or need to merge the changes.

> The things must be piling up, and in places I have no knowledge of

I doubt they're really piling up.  You can find them easily using
locate or find though, if you're concerned.  Something like this will
find them:

$ locate .rpmnew .rpmsave

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I got nasty habits.  I take tea at 3.

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