[Monotone-devel] Re: /etc under version control

[Ludovic Brenta]

"Gour D." <address@hidden> writes:
> Hello!
>
> For a long time I wanted to keep my /etc under version control, but
> darcs is one of those DVCS where it is explicitly said it is not safe
> to do due to lack of support for perms & symlinks...So, this is nice
> opportunity to deploy Monotone...
>
> On #monotone I've got info to take a look at "6.1.10 Attribute
> Handling", but would like to hear some more hints how to proceed in the
> "/etc under mtn" project?

I've been doing this for several years now, without a problem on my
Debian laptop.  The only trick, for me, was to ignore some files which
are symlinks to files outside /etc (most of these point to binary
executables anyway).  Here is my /etc/.mtn-ignore:

rc.\.d
mtab
alternatives

I have a dedicated database, /var/lib/monotone/etc.mtn-0.46, which is
owned by root and only writable by root.

I usually use only one branch, org.ludovic-brenta.etc, and switch to
another branch when spending time at my parents' home (and using their
wifi access).  I commit changes made by the package manager directly to
that branch.  I do not need to keep the pristine configuration files
under version control since Debian already local changes nicely.

-- 
Ludovic Brenta.