Re: mergemaster feature suggestion...

From: Christopher Vance <vance_at_aurema.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2003 10:41:15 +1100
On Mon, Dec 22, 2003 at 12:37:41AM +0200, Evren Yurtesen wrote:
>About those old files, I think any old file which doesnt exist in newer 
>release does not only waste space and cause confusion. Also it might 
>cause security problems. Considering, a problem in a file/binary 
>whatever which does not exist in newer versions wouldnt be fixed by the 
>freebsd developers. However it is a small possibility.

Try removing /etc/fstab, not installed by the build last time I
checked, and see what a security problem its presence caused.

I would only be happy removing things known to be obsolete, like
/etc/ssh*config, and even then only with the user's agreement.  Things
not known to the build, like /etc/fstab, should be left alone.

I have thought it would be nice to point out during the build/install
any stuff known to be removed or superceded, not just in /etc, but
also obsolete programs or old library versions.  Perhaps a
REMOVE_OBSOLETE build knob could do "rm -i" of these things during
install.  This means when stuff gets moved or removed, enough of its
Makefile is left behind to clean up after it.  Slightly cleverer would
be to know which things are in the default build, but turned off in
/etc/make.conf, and ask whether they should also be removed.

Some things have moved in the past, like ipf binaries and ssh config
files.  It would be nice if the now-unused copies would at least make
their presence known.  I know mergemaster already does this for /etc,
but not for /sbin.

The only solution currently appears to be to do a fresh install
somewhere other than /, and then selectively remove stuff which you
used to have but isn't in the build.  Anybody not competent to select
rightly and to recover from overeagerness, should leave it all alone.

-- 
Christopher Vance
Received on Sun Dec 21 2003 - 14:41:59 UTC

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