*BSD News Article 86440


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Why upgrades are not simpler?
Date: 8 Jan 1997 02:17:30 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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conrads@neosoft.com (Conrad Sabatier) wrote:

> > Consider this an official ``job offer'' if you like. :)
> 
> Are there any archives of any discussions/ideas concerning this subject?

Not that i know of, but i remember that Jordan emitted some ideas
recently, after the utmp.h changes in FreeBSD-current.

> On the surface, it seems like it should be a fairly straightforward
> procedure, but I suspect there are some hidden pitfalls that I'm not
> considering.
> 
> Why not simply upgrade binaries and sources *only*, leaving /etc, /var,
> /home, /dev untouched?

First, you need to offer something for upgrading these, too.  Look, if
/etc/services has been extended since the last release, or if
/etc/sysconfig has been modified, and the modifications are not in an
area where the local admin has even changed a bit, he will certainly
want to accept the new changes as well.  Hence you gotta offer them to
him.

For a more complicated matter, see the recent utmp.h changes.  They
render all existing /var/log/wtmp* files useless if they remain
unmodified.  However, you can't leave the people at their own mercy
with this, you need to show them a way of moving the files to the new
format.

Finally, somebody found that, after upgrading to FreeBSD 3.1.4, his
mumblefratz driver no longer works.  So now, he wants to revert
everything back to FreeBSD 2.7.1, where he came from.  Hence, the
upgrade process should at least support one level of `undo' operation.

-- 
cheers, J"org

joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)