etcupdate: Restore /etc from backup and merge into a new installation

[POSIX.1]

Having read etcupdate(8) and looked at the source in /usr/sbin/etcupdate makes me asking for help. Confusion is about a bunch of named directories and being unsure what to use as I fail to succeed.

The task is restoring /etc from backup and merge it with the untouched new /etc in a fresh installation done from scratch with /usr/scr not installed.

Is it better to restore into /etc.old or direct to /etc?
And what is the exact workflow of commands then with etcupdate?

 

[SirDice]

The only worthwhile files would be /etc/rc.conf{|.local} (and /etc/rc.conf.d/*) and perhaps /etc/periodic.conf. Those aren't even merged by etcupdate(8). Everything else should simply be the standard files. What do you intend to merge?

 

[mer]

The only worthwhile files would be /etc/rc.conf{|.local} and perhaps /etc/periodic.conf. Those aren't even merged by etcupdate(8). Everything else should simply be the standard files. What do you intend to merge?

I agree with this. I've seen people run into issues when they try and "merge" /etc from 2 different releases.
And then people modify the system files instead of the override files.

 

[Maturin]

Everything else should simply be the standard files.

Okay.
But then where else are
/etc/hosts, /etc/ssh/, /etc/rc.shutdown et al
on your systems?

 

[SirDice]

/etc/hosts is empty (use DNS), Host keys should have been replaced (it's a new install), so don't care about /etc/ssh. And never modified /etc/rc.shutdown.

 

[mer]

The stock /etc/hosts has entries for "localhost", the address for the host comes from /etc/rc.conf and/or DHCP.