[TriLUG] Keeping track of system changes

[Mark Kempster]

> It's not clear to me
> how to map the configuration files which make up part of the /etc
> tree, and in some cases are scattered around in other places with the
> CVS concept of modules, and how CVS seems to me to want to control the
> total contents of the working directory.

I've got subversion set up like the following structure

   repos/trunk/sysconfig/org/domain/machine/etc/hosts

On <machine>, one can do something like

   cd /
   sudo svn co http://svn/repos/trunk/sysconfig/org/domain/machine/etc

On the downside, subversion doesn't track all the right file
permissions, ownership, etc. You do get an exectuable flag (the
svn:executable property), but that's not enough for config file work...

If there are already files in /etc, svn won't mess with them - just
the bits & pieces it knows about. On the upside, since subversion
caches local copies of the files in .svn, there's a quick backup in
place without having to hit the svn server again.

The file ownership / permissions thing is a bit of a pain at present.

The system is limping along for system-specific config files. For shared
files, not so good. You can always do multiple svn co or svn switch, but
cfengine might be the better tool.

Cheers
- Mark