============================================================ # printf -- '-foo' >| /etc/foobar # printf -- '-bar' >| /etc/._cfg0000_foobar # etc-update Scanning Configuration files... Automerging trivial changes in: /etc/foobar Exiting: Nothing left to do; exiting. :) # cat /etc/foobar -bar ============================================================ Same with '+'. But not '=', for example, or if absent. This is even despite: /etc/etc-update.conf ------------------------------------------------------------ # Whether trivial/comment changes should be automerged eu_automerge="no" (No other change from default). ... Which for etc-update, should really simply mean "if there is a ._cfg* file, that's not strictly identical to the live version, don't check anything else, and systematically ask users for their decision"... (Of course I notably have CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc", and nothing cancelling it in CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK). For comparison, with dispatch-conf: ============================================================ # echo '-foo' >| /etc/foobar # echo '-bar' >| /etc/._cfg0000_foobar # dispatch-conf --- /etc/foobar 2024-05-20 19:11:18.670740602 +0200 +++ /etc/._cfg0000_foobar 2024-05-20 19:11:23.009743173 +0200 @@ -1 +1 @@ --foo +-bar >> (1 of 1) -- /etc/foobar >> q quit, h help, n next, e edit-new, z zap-new, u use-new m merge, t toggle-merge, l look-merge: ============================================================ Actual meaningful examples: # grep -r --exclude='*~' '^-' /etc ============================================================ /etc/clang/gentoo-common.cfg:-include "/usr/include/gentoo/maybe-stddefs.h" /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened-ld.cfg:-Wl,-z,relro /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened-ld.cfg:-Wl,-z,now /etc/clang/gentoo-gcc-install.cfg:--gcc-install-dir="/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu/13" /etc/clang/gentoo-runtimes.cfg:--rtlib=libgcc /etc/clang/gentoo-runtimes.cfg:--unwindlib=libgcc /etc/clang/gentoo-runtimes.cfg:--stdlib=libstdc++ /etc/clang/gentoo-runtimes.cfg:-fuse-ld=bfd /etc/clang/gentoo-cet.cfg:-Xarch_host -fcf-protection=full /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-Xarch_host -fstack-clash-protection /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-Xarch_host -fstack-protector-strong /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-fPIE /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-include "/usr/include/gentoo/fortify.h" /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS /etc/clang/gentoo-hardened.cfg:-D_LIBCPP_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS=1 /etc/mplayer/input.conf:- audio_delay -0.100 # Binding the hyphen key. ============================================================ So it's particularly problematic for Clang (sys-devel/clang-common here), at least... (and I tested that the problem does appear for these files). I suppose there is some regex issue, while checking some diff, in /usr/bin/etc-update, confusing the diff format, with lines actually starting with '-' or '+'...? (I'm not actually using etc-update, I just noticed while experimenting with stuffs related to dispatch-conf... But I suppose some people still do use it...)
