Hello all, I upgraded with sysupgrade, i am on a netbsd 9.1 and upgraded through: sysupgrade auto My /usr/pkg/etc/sysupgrade.conf is tracking NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest My thing is that by mistake it has overwritten all configuration files, so i had to recreate my user, my .bashrc,my .ctwmrc and so on. How can i prevent this to happen? i don't want to overwrite the configuration files if i have customized them. And i would like to not say that manually but doing it automatically. Is there a way to tell sysupgrade to only upgrade config file if i have not customized them? Or if it is not possible, can i tell it to just keep my config files? Thanks

netbsdnoob In addition, when i run sysupgrade auto again, why it does not detect that I am already on the latest installation and don't need to upgrade? Sorry I am trying a way to have something similar to arch "pacman -Syyu", so always being on the bleeding edge but upgrade just in case there is something new. Is there a way to achieve this?

netbsdnoob https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/110-upgrading-netbsd-using-sysinst Then, point repositories.conf to the repo you want and run pkgin update and pkgin full-upgrade For pkgsrc, cd /usr/pkgsrc cvs up -dP if(window.hljsLoader && !document.currentScript.parentNode.hasAttribute('data-s9e-livepreview-onupdate')) { window.hljsLoader.highlightBlocks(document.currentScript.parentNode); }

sysupgrade messing up stuff

netbsdnoob Did you read chapter 4, https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-upgrading.html ?

I prefer to do it with sysinst but,

netbsdnoob My thing is that by mistake it has overwritten all configuration files, so i had to recreate my user, my .bashrc, my .ctwmrc and so on.

This shouldn't happen.

netbsdnoob Is there a way to tell sysupgrade to only upgrade config file if i have not customized them?

I've actually never used sysupgrade myself. It's surely possible with sysinst.

Where are your config files? Do you have them in /etc? I don't believe it overwrote your home directory.

netbsdnoob

pin Yes it overwrote connfig files within my home directory! I swear!

netbsdnoob Sorry I am trying a way to have something similar to arch "pacman -Syyu"

No, the base system and third-party packages are separated. You can do it in two steps, one for the OS and one for the packages.

netbsdnoob

pin What are these steps?

netbsdnoob https://www.unitedbsd.com/d/110-upgrading-netbsd-using-sysinst

Then, point repositories.conf to the repo you want and run pkgin update and pkgin full-upgrade

For pkgsrc,

cd /usr/pkgsrc
cvs up -dP

neubaer

netbsdnoob I'm very confused, because I've ran sysupgrade auto several times and it always asked me which configuration files to keep/overwrite/merge. Did you mess with sysupgrade.conf too much?

Also, sysupgrade never touched my /home. Mainly, I think, because /home is not part of the sets and the contents are entirely user-created, with some dotfiles copied over from /etc/skel at account creation time. So it has no reason to touch it, really.

Now I'm curious as to what you did. Can you please write down the exact steps you took? Both before and after you ran sysupgrade.

netbsdnoob In addition, when i run sysupgrade auto again, why it does not detect that I am already on the latest installation and don't need to upgrade?

Sysupgrade is not a package manager. Rather, it's a script that downloads the sets (archives containing the base NetBSD system) and extracts them, automating what was a boring manual procedure before.

This is a fundamental difference between Linux and BSDs. Linux is a collection of packages, and you update that with a package manager that checks whether every package on the system has a newer version. BSDs are split between the base system installed from sets, and additional software installed on top of that from ports (pkgsrc in NetBSD's case). Because it's split like that, you can update the base system simply by extracting updated sets into / which overwrites the old binaries/libraries/etc.

Furthermore, the base system is usually available in three different forms:

RELEASE is the formal release and doesn't change after it's released (e.g. 9.0, 9.1).
STABLE is the branch with continuous fixes and improvements to the formal release. A new minor release is eventually created from this (e.g. 9.1 was created from 9_STABLE).
CURRENT is the ever-rolling branch with all the new commits. A new major release is eventually created from this.

The sets in "NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest" are the daily builds of STABLE branch of NetBSD 9, so updating once a week with sysupgrade is approximately like updating a Linux distro.

Of course, pkgsrc has to be updated separately: pkgin up && pkgin ug if you installed from binary packages.

neubaer I think, because /home is not part of the sets and the contents are entirely user-created

Exactly, hence I don't understand it either.

netbsdnoob

neubaer Thanks for the detailed answer.
First I will tell you what I did.
Basically when sysupgrade asked me to overwrite files I think I replied to overwrite to most of them. That was my mistake. But again, I hope there is a way to revert this, maybe though /var/backups?

Second, Your messaage is very clear until I hit this: "The sets in "NetBSD-daily/netbsd-9/latest" are the daily builds of STABLE branch of NetBSD 9, so updating once a week with sysupgrade is approximately like updating a Linux distro."

I don't understand since I expected that the daily builds are from the CURRENT, not the stable. Why making daily builds of STABLE ???

Also wasn't runnning a rolling release like being on CURRENT?

nia

Yes, you should actually pay attention during the etcupdate phase so you don't screw up your system configuration. That is supposed to be obvious.

Secondly, NetBSD is not a Linux distribution. "Rolling release" does not mean anything. Packages are separately developed from the OS. The OS's current branch is the unstable development branch. It contains live experimental changes. A "rolling release" Linux distribution tries to package the latest stable version of every package. It does not involve builds of the unstable development branch of the kernel.

We publish daily builds of the stable branch because it takes time to make releases so they don't usually contain the latest changes to the stable branch.

You would have known this if you'd read the "about" page on the NetBSD site. I suggest you look things up and read them carefully in the future so things like this don't happen and you don't need to create a million forum threads and questions on IRC.

netbsdnoob

nia I still don't understand this "We publish daily builds of the stable branch because it takes time to make releases so they don't usually contain the latest changes to the stable branch."

I don't understand why making daily builds of stable? I was thinking STABLE was like let's say 8.0 and this does not change until a new stable comes out. This confuses me.

P.S.: The about page seems only in english and unluckily it ir not my mother tongue, I need a translator and translations are not always that good.

netbsdnoob

nia Again is there any way to backup a screwed config file ? i mean if a user presses the wrong button and gets its config file overwritten is there any way to fix this ?

netbsdnoob I don't understand why making daily builds of stable? I was thinking STABLE was like let's say 8.0 and this does not change until a new stable comes out.

Let's assume you have a vulnerability in one component of the base OS. Would you like to wait until the next release to get it fixed?

Things like this get fixed on the daily-builds.
Now, I'd have to agree that daily is a bit too often. It would be enough twice a week.

netbsdnoob The about page seems only in english and unluckily it ir not my mother tongue

Just curious, that would be? Your mother tongue, I mean.

rvp

pin Just curious, that would be? Your mother tongue, I mean.

Pink.

netbsdnoob

pin azerbaijiani, but i can also understand some turkish. They are almost inintelligible.

netbsdnoob

pin do you think there is some effort in translating netbsd docs in azerbaijiani in turkish?

netbsdnoob 😆 that's why I asked which language. I do speak four languages fluently and understand most of other three but, unfortunately not Azerbaijiani or Turkish 🙁

netbsdnoob

pin Wow those are a loot of languages, what are these languages?

netbsdnoob Portuguese, Swedish, English, Spanish + French, Norwegian and Italian.

netbsdnoob

pin Woow that's a lot!! Learn Azerbaijiani it's a beautiful language!