Re: keeping /etc under git with etckeeper

From: Edward Z. Yang <edwardzyang@thewritingpot.com>
Date: Aug 10, 2008, 03:15 UTC
Message-ID: <489E5D54.7040708@thewritingpot.com>
In-Reply-To: <14b409fc0808091148k69f4019n6996261a710adfca@mail.gmail.com>

Pierre-Julien Bringer wrote:

> Do you think storing the etc directory in git with etckeeper is a good
> thing? I've heard it was not recommended to do so for the home
> directory, but also for /etc:

I've been using etckeeper for a while now, and it's working reasonably well. The one thing I personally don't like, however, is the fact that etckeeper automatically commits a dirty /etc state before the auto-commits for any installed packages. I.e. auto-commit on apt-get GOOD, auto-commit on other changes BAD. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to change the commit hooks to do your bidding. :-)

With carefully issued Git commands, you can have Git refuse to touch any files when there is a merge conflict, so you can resolve it in another checkout. Of course, Git makes it extremely easy to back out a failed merge, so as long as there isn't an essential process polling /etc every few seconds, you should be savvy if you revert before a reboot.