mergemaster annoyance or not?

[kama]

On Wed, 18 Mar 2009, Doug Barton wrote:

> Oliver Fromme wrote:
> > Doug Barton wrote:
> >  > The attached patch adds a -F option to automatically install files
> >  > when only the FreeBSD $Ids differ. I've tested this and it seems to do
> >  > what the people concerned about this issue are asking for.
> >
> > That seems to be a useful feature.
>
> Thanks.
>
> > You need to quote the dollar signs, though.
>
> Well, not only would that defeat the purpose they are there for, it
> wouldn't work. Perhaps you missed the bit where I said that I actually
> tested this? :)
>
> > However, maybe the best solution is to add a new keyword
> > for mergemaster.rc, so the user can exactly specify which
> > kind of changes should be always installed.
>
> That's an interesting idea, but I think that the number of times that
> there is a nonfunctional change other than to the VCS Id are very
> small, and I don't want to complicate this more than it needs to be.
>
> Please remember that we're dealing with two very different groups of
> users. One is the "power user" who updates frequently and can
> certainly hack this sort of thing themselves if they really want it.
> The other is the "average" user who only updates once or twice a year,
> usually to a new release, occasionally to a new patch level, etc. The
> vast majority of our users are in the latter category, and they need a
> simple tool with a minimum of foot-shooting capacity.

One thing that really bother me is the fact that it patches passwd.

I would rather only have mergemaster to use the pw command to add and
delete users and groups instead.

Its especially annoying when it updated passwd without my content on a
remote update.

/Bjorn