Bug 398843 – remove etc-update from emerge output, use dispatch-conf

• Product: Portage Development
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description nm (RETIRED) 2012-01-14 05:34:34 UTC]

as stated. emerge's output should no longer mention etc-update at all, as the tool is just too dangerous to use. the documentation team and the developers have been in agreement about this for awhile...which is why we changed all the online handbooks/documentation to reflect using dispatch-conf instead of etc-update.

we did this four years ago, actually:

http://sources.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/gentoo/xml/htdocs/doc/en/handbook/hb-portage-tools.xml?r1=1.9&r2=1.10

please...do it for the users. we don't need them to hose their systems again by accidentally wiping all their config files, which etc-update makes all too easy. we need some consistency with the handbook's instructions. thanks!

[Comment 1 nm (RETIRED) 2012-01-14 05:36:01 UTC]

looks like the "autounmask" output always tell users to run etc-update, too.

[Comment 2 Fabian Groffen 2012-01-14 08:26:47 UTC]

huh? what's wrong with etc-update?

[Comment 3 Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2012-01-14 10:46:00 UTC]

never needed dispatch-conf for anything, etc-update is more than enough and not dangerous at all -> resolved, wontfix

[Comment 4 Zac Medico 2012-01-14 14:44:39 UTC]

It shouldn't be very difficult to add support to etc-update for /etc/config-archive, which will make it just as safe as dispatch-conf.

[Comment 5 Sebastian Luther (few) 2012-01-17 17:36:39 UTC]

(In reply to comment #1)
> looks like the "autounmask" output always tell users to run etc-update, too.

Yeah, I put it there, because it's what I have always used. In comment #0 you talk about some bogus behavior, but I can't find any bug about it and in all the time I watch dev-portage@g.o never have seen anything close to "etc-update wiped my /etc/portage". Could you elaborate on this?

[Comment 6 Ben Kohler 2012-02-26 21:56:49 UTC]

I find that for new(ish) users, dispatch-conf is both more intuitive and (currently) safer.  Is there anything wrong with changing messages to simply read "Please use dispatch-conf or etc-update to merge configuration file changes"?

[Comment 7 SpanKY 2012-03-27 18:14:58 UTC]

our emerge output should be in sync with the documentation.  if we've suggested people move over to dispatch-conf, and new users are having a better time as a result, then it probably is worthwhile to update the text.  for us "old timers", the warning message isn't going to make a lick of a difference.

as for extending etc-update, i think we should split that bug off.  personally, i'm stuck in my ways, at least for now ...

[Comment 8 Zac Medico 2012-03-27 19:02:14 UTC]

(In reply to comment #7)
> our emerge output should be in sync with the documentation.  if we've
> suggested people move over to dispatch-conf, and new users are having a
> better time as a result, then it probably is worthwhile to update the text.

Okay, done:

http://git.overlays.gentoo.org/gitweb/?p=proj/portage.git;a=commit;h=ea26df1ef9b3dcb7a6a45b487342cc7149a77be5

> as for extending etc-update, i think we should split that bug off. 

Yeah, good idea.

[Comment 9 Zac Medico 2012-03-28 01:16:48 UTC]

This is fixed in 2.1.10.52 and 2.2.0_alpha96.

[Comment 10 nm (RETIRED) 2012-03-28 22:24:48 UTC]

thanks, guys.