# is there a faster way than using mergemaster?



## wonslung (Oct 2, 2009)

I set up a lot of servers lately with freebsd.  The hosting company i use still doesn't offer freebsd 7.2 so i'm always upgrading the machines.  I tend to download the sources and build it but the mergemaster step can take awhile, the only files i DONT use from the new root is /etc/group /etc/passwd /etc/master.passwd

I know this is a somewhat obvious question but i'd just like to make sure....is there any problem with just copying the stuff from /var/tmp?

Is using mergemaster REALLY that big of a deal for such an install?


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## ale (Oct 2, 2009)

If you look in the mergemaster man page, you will find some options that could be useful for you.


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## DutchDaemon (Oct 2, 2009)

See mergemaster suggestions in /usr/src/Makefile.


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## aragon (Oct 2, 2009)

```
mv /etc /etc.old && cd /usr/src && make distribution DESTDIR=/
cd /etc.old && mv fstab resolv.conf rc.conf group passwd master.passwd /etc && pwd_mkdb /etc/master.passwd
```


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## foo_daemon (Oct 5, 2009)

In particular, if you are frequently re-upgrading the same machine, you want to look at the "-U" option ('long' the first time; insanely faster all following times for non-major upgrades).

@Aragorn: s/mv/cp .  I would rather have multiple copies lying around than only 1.


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## ernie (May 11, 2010)

freebsd-update is great except when it forces you to run mergemaster. All of a sudden other OS's upgrade systems start to look a lot more friendly.

When I run freebsd-update, mergemaster seems to choke on understanding that the only line that has changed in a config file is the version number, it forces me to hand edit countless files just to update their version numbers, the body content hasn't changed. Is there some trick to making mergemaster behave a little smarter at this? When you have several servers to do, this adds up to many man hours wasted cause of mergemaster.


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## crsd (May 11, 2010)

@ernie: It doesn't force you to use mergemaster...

I'd love to see freebsd-update(8) use mergemaster(8), even if it means I've to keep /usr/src.


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## aragon (May 11, 2010)

ernie said:
			
		

> it forces me to hand edit countless files just to update their version numbers


You should never need to hand edit with mergemaster.  In the instances you describe, have you tried the (m)erge option from the menu that appears?


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## lme@ (May 11, 2010)

You can also try etcupdate: http://people.freebsd.org/~jhb/etcupdate/


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## vermaden (May 11, 2010)

@wonslung

[CMD=""]# mergemaster -p
# make installworld
# mergemaster -FiU[/CMD]


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