Updating NetBSD and issues

netbsdnoob

Hello everyone,

I struggle everytime I have to update my NetBSD machine, I tried using guides which have been posted here.
I am talking about updates between 9.2 to 9.3 or from 9.3 to 10 and so on.

My main issue seems to be that some important file in /etc gets overwritten.
Either when I run etcupdate manually or when relying on sysinst it seems that I overwrite some files that should not be overwritten.

Sometimes I am just in doubt whether I need a new copy of a specific file or not. For example for files related to passwords like shadow and so on i know i should not touch them but there are other files that I don't really know if i should update or not.

Do you have any recommendations on this? Which files do you generally not touch? Can you provide me with a list?

netbsdnoob What files are you having trouble with? These are the only files I have modified and none gets overwritten when upgrading the system but, these shouldn't be at risk anyway.

rvp

netbsdnoob My main issue seems to be that some important file in /etc gets overwritten.

Shouldn't. etcupdate will show you the files which've changed then ask you what you want to do (ignore, overwrite, merge/...) with 'em.

As for sysinst, it extracts the etc and xetc into a special /.sysinst dir. and then runs postinstall which could overwrite files but these typically are the scripts in /etc--which you shouldn't touch anyway. postinstall leaves most user-modifiable config. files alone.

I update NetBSD like this. (Note that this procedure is for updating between minor releases 9.3 -> 9.4 for example. For major updates like between 9.x -> 10.x, just do the procedure from the 10.x USB install image--adjusting paths as needed.)

kc9udx

When using etcupdate, you determine exactly what gets updated, deleted, merged, or manually modified. There shouldn't be anything else that happens.

netbsdnoob

rvp yes but that is exactly the problem, sometimes i don't know what to do with the files since i don't know what is the purpose of those files...

Should i merge? delete? ignore? I don't know.

netbsdnoob sometimes i don't know what to do with the files since i don't know what is the purpose of those files...

Should i merge? delete? ignore? I don't know.

What are the symptoms you experience when this happens? I mean, when they are overwritten, what do you miss?

Jay

netbsdnoob one of the ideas I had could avoid situations like this https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2024/05/02/msg031083.html
But just a thought currently such setup not possible I guess.

rvp

netbsdnoob Should i merge? delete? ignore? I don't know.

In most cases you should (d)on't install because a) the default config. files don't change frequently and b) you know what you've changed and you can see this in the diffs.

A few occasions, you should (i)nstall unconditionally. For example the files under /etc/mtree you should always install.

Only in rare cases would you have to (m)erge. This is a pain using etcupdate so I just skip these files and then merge them using better tools.

netbsdnoob

rvp which better tools?

rvp

netbsdnoob I make do with (g)vimdiff. If you want the stretch limo treatment, there's meld.

ricardob777

You can use /etc/etcupdate.conf to skip files like this:

IGNOREFILES="/etc/group /etc/master.passwd /etc/nsswitch.conf /etc/rc.conf /etc/shells /etc/ssh/sshd_config /etc/sysctl.conf /etc/ttys /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

Another thing I usually do on systems without ZFS or Btrfs is to version control /etc using git like this:

cd /etc
sudo git init .
sudo chmod 700 .git
sudo git add .
sudo git commit -m init

This way you can track any changes to your configuration with git diff. You can then run git add & git commit -m $message when you're happy with the changes and then track history with git log -p and so on.

netbsdnoob

ricardob777 are really these the only files to skip at the end?
why are they not skipped automatically?

ricardob777

netbsdnoob

They're not skipped automatically because the defaults may change anytime.

netbsdnoob

ricardob777 ok but how does it work on other OS, like i have been for years with several linux distros and those files are automatically managed, i don't think they change during updates

ricardob777

netbsdnoob

They do change. Check the commits in any file in this directory:
https://github.com/NetBSD/src/tree/trunk/etc