etcupdate is a tool that lets the administrator update the configuration and startup files in
/etc (and some other directories like
/dev,
/root and
/var) without having to manually check and modify every file. The administrator should run this script after performing an operating system update (e.g. after running
make build in
/usr/src or after extracting new binary distribution files) to update to the latest configuration and startup files.
etcupdate compares the new configuration files against the currently installed files. The user is given the option of installing, merging or deleting each modified or missing file. The user can also view the differences between the files. By default, it shows the differences in the unified diff format. The default format can be toggled to show the differences in unified, context, or side by side formats or an user-defined command may be used to view differences. (And if
wdiff is installed, it can also show differences on a word by word basis.)
etcupdate also detects if the user installs certain special files and performs corresponding tasks like remaking device nodes or rebuilding a database from the
aliases(5) file. Finally,
etcupdate runs
postinstall(8) to check the results.
etcupdate needs a clean set of new configuration files to compare the existing files against. These files, called the “reference files” in this manual, may be derived from either a source or binary distribution of
NetBSD.
If the user is updating from sources (which is the default mode),
etcupdate will first create a copy of the reference files by running
make distribution in
/usr/src/etc, installing the files to a so-called
temproot. (See usage of the
-s srcdir and
-t temproot options later in this manual page.) Although this is the default mode, it is not recommended (see the “BUGS” section).
Instead of using sources, it is recommended that the user should extract one or more binary distribution sets in a special location and use those as the reference files (see usage of the
-s tgzdir option later in this manual page), or specify one or more binary distribution sets directly (see usage of the
-s tgzfile option later in this manual page).
The following options are available:
-a
etcupdate can automatically update files which have not been modified locally. The -a flag instructs etcupdate to store MD5 checksums in /var/etcupdate and use these checksums to determine if there have been any local modifications.
-l
Automatically skip files with unchanged RCS IDs. This has the effect of leaving alone files that have been altered locally but which have not been changed in the reference files. Since this works using RCS IDs, files without RCS IDs will not be skipped even if only modified locally. This flag may be used together with the -a flag described above.
-p pager
The pager to use when displaying files. By default this is
more(1) but it can be changed either with this option or by defining the
PAGER variable.
-s {srcdir | tgzdir | tgzfile}
The location of the reference files, or the
NetBSD source files used to create the reference files. This may be specified in one of three ways:
-s srcdir
The top level directory of the NetBSD source tree. By default this is /usr/src but it can be changed either with this option or the SRCDIR variable. The reference files will be created by running “make distribution” in the srcdir/etc directory. Note that srcdir should refer to the top of the source directory tree; earlier versions of etcupdate expected srcdir to refer to the etc subdirectory within the source tree.
-s tgzdir
A directory in which reference files have been extracted from a binary distribution of NetBSD. The files that are distributed in the “etc.tgz” set file must be present. The files that are distributed in the “xetc.tgz” set file are optional. The reference files from the specified directory will be copied to the temproot directory.
-s tgzfile
The location of a set file (or “tgz file”) such as “etc.tgz” or “xetc.tgz” from a binary distribution of NetBSD. Each set file is a compressed archive containing reference files, which will be extracted to the temproot directory. Multiple -s options may be used to specify multiple set files. The “etc.tgz” set file must be specified. The “xetc.tgz” set file is optional.
-t temproot
Specifies the location of the temproot directory. This directory will be used for a temporary copy of the reference files created by running “make distribution” in the source directory specified by -s srcdir, or a temporary copy of the reference files extracted from the binary sets specified by -s tgzfile, or a temporary copy of the reference files from the directory specified by -s tempdir. By default this is /tmp/temproot but can be changed either with this option or the TEMPROOT environment variable.
-v
Makes etcupdate verbose about its actions.
-w width
Sets screen width used during interactive merge. By default this is the number of columns
stty(1) reports but it can be changed either with this option or by defining the
WIDTH variable. This is useful for
xterm(1) users with wider shell windows.