The $FreeBSD$ keyword is empty after the conversion to Git. Now, mergemaster(8) has nothing to compare other than actual file content. Previously, users of "mergemaster -Fp" and "mergemaster -Fi" only merged files when the $FreeBSD$ keyword differed. Now, we find ourselves constantly merging files we have modified such as /etc/master.passwd and /etc/group. Please fix mergemaster(8) or consider assigning values to the $FreeBSD$ keyword for files belonging in /etc. Maybe it can be as simple as "$FreeBSD: number$" where "number" must be incremented before running "git commit". Finally, maybe it's time we all moved to etcupdate(8). Please advise the community.
Yep, mergemaster became almost completely useless without keywords. This should be considered as POLA violation.
(In reply to Anton Saietskii from comment #1) No worries. I was told that mergemaster(8) is on its way out, but $FreeBSD$ IDs can be regenerated in the local Git repository with clean/smudge filters. With them applied, "mergemaster -UFi" still works fine and also the administrator is able to better track the updates. More info on configuring the filters can be found here: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Attributes
Created attachment 222381 [details] id_tools.tar.gz This is my personal solution. My solution is to replace "$FreeBSD$" with "$FreeBSD: MD5 $". (MD5 is the MD5 checksum of the source file.) "$FreeBSD: MD5 $" is not the original "$FreeBSD$" format, but it is useful enough for mergemaster. I'm happy with these. However, I don't know if these are enough for everyone who does various tasks. And, I don't even know what will happen to "$FreeBSD$" in the future. I hope that a better response will be made. Here are the steps: =========================================================================== [Provides 3 files] replace_id.sh: This is a script that replaces "$FreeBSD ... $" in files installed by "make distribution" with "$FreeBSD: MD5 $". src_id.sh: This is a git filter script. post-commit: This is a git hook script. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [0] Start with the mergemaster completed by the traditional way. It doesn't matter if you use a subversion repository, a git repository, or any revision of the source files. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1-1] Backup the files installed by "make distribution" (That is, /etc/*, /root/*, and /boot/device.hints) It's not mandatory to do this, but I recommend that you back up your /etc, /root, /boot/device.hints files so that you can restore them in case of an accident. [1-2] # sh replace_id.sh Make sure the SOURCEDIR and DESTDIR in replace_id.sh are correct and run replace_id.sh. With the above, "$FreeBSD ... $" in files installed by "make distribution" will be replaced with "$FreeBSD: MD5 $". Make sure those files are not corrupted. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [2-1] Now let /usr/src be the new git repository. [2-2] Install "src_id.sh" in the appropriate directory in the ${PATH}. (ex: /usr/local/bin/src_id.sh) And, in the git repository: [2-3] # git config filter.src_id.smudge 'src_id.sh add' [2-4] # git config filter.src_id.clean 'src_id.sh del' [2-5] # echo '* filter=src_id' >> .git/info/attributes [2-6] (After checking that your post-commit file doesn't exist in .git/hooks) # /bin/cp post-commit .git/hooks [2-7] # git ls-files -z | /usr/bin/xargs -0 /bin/rm -f [2-8] # git checkout -f From now on, even if you update the source files, mergemaster will work fine. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [Notes] When you first run mergemaster after the above work, you will be asked to merge the following four files. /etc/mail/freebsd.cf /etc/mail/freebsd.submit.cf /etc/mail/sendmail.cf /etc/mail/submit.cf For these, please merge at that time. (This is because replace_id.sh doesn't support cases for those files.) =========================================================================== That's all. Thanks.