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Linux Distros with CVS/RCS for Config Files?

Posted by Cliff on from the /etc-by-versions dept.

bergeron76 asks: "Does anyone know of a Linux distributions or modifications to a Linux d system that implement a CVS[like] structure for control over system configuration files (/etc, /usr/etc, and so on)? Personally, I'd love to see a distro that featured a native CVS/RCS control mechanism for editing system configuration files. Does anything like this currently exist? If not, is anyone working in this direction?"

4 of 36 comments (clear)

  1. works for my user accounts by x00101010x · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I keep my entire home directory in a Subversion repository. Works great for linux and my windows boxes. Firefox and thunderbird user directories are compatible across platforms.
    I just add 'svn up' to my login script and 'svn ci --message "%HOST%@%TIME%%DATE%"' to my logout script.
    No reason it shouldn't work for a whole system with an initial 'svn up' somewhere in rc.local and periodic updates in a chron job. Just do a commit whenever you change things on your template system and 5 minutes later it'll be on all your boxen.

    There was a slashdot article about putting a home directory under version control a few months ago from which I got the idea, too lazy to find the link at the moment though.

    --
    DONT PANIC
  2. FreeBSD by Scythe0r · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You should really check out a utility for FreeBSD called mergemaster. You run it after rebuilding/upgrading your system and it compares the latest "vanilla" system configuration files to what you've got.

    You can choose to overwrite your file, keep your file or merge the two together. I like to think of it as the ultimate choice in system housekeeping.

  3. Re:Nothing is stopping you from doing this. by Feztaa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In that case, devfs is broken. IMHO, programs should just look for the files that they need and ignore anything extra, that's the best way (provides the leanest code and the most flexible software... what's the point of adding code that says 'if (extra files) { die; }'? That doesn't accomplish anything).

  4. Re:An old idea for modern times... by yabHuj · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yeah, it was with VMS and its smaller brother RSX-11M+ (and probably derivates). Each file got an additional "dot number" appended. A full (!) copy was saved (with raised number) each time the file was written. Accessing the file without version number simply gave you the currentmost one.

    But with running low on disk space all the time (those were the days when a hard disc had 5MB = five MegaBytes total capacity) , frequent use of the PURGE command erased all old copies quite often too early...