Re: freebsd-update

On 1/24/2014 11:31 AM, Mark Felder wrote:
> I agree with the rest of this thread. This is just awful. I'm basically
> forced to do source based updates when jumping major versions because
> freebsd-update is a nightmare to use.

I've yet to go through a freebsd-update process that didn't require a 
manual clean-up afterward.  It's easier (and faster) to build an obj 
tree on my desktop, ship it to my servers via NFS over a tunnel.

Another scenario I've run into more than once:

- Install release m.x
- Realize there's a kernel/driver bug, fixed in m-stable
- Source upgrade to m-stable
- Release m.z happens, contains fix
- Freebsd-update upgrade to m.z

The updater will discover that all of /etc differs by $Id tag.  A few 
will have non-edit differences.  The rest are either default-empty files 
or files not found in the distribution (pf.conf, sshd keys, etc.). 
Freebsd-update will force me to manually approve every single change.

With mergemaster, automatic upgrade takes care of all but the edits and 
provides a MUCH nicer diff editor for those.  Mergemaster is a <1 minute 
process, even on I/O-constrained hardware.

I understand that when freebsd-update was written there were "some 
problems" with the existing install/merge tools used for source 
upgrades; but I have to wonder: what issues could be so bad that the 
above is the lesser evil?

Freebsd-update's merge needs to learn what mergemaster's can do.  Until 
then, freebsd-update is a non-starter, IMO.
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