SYSMERGE(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual SYSMERGE(8)
NAME
sysmerge - update system configuration files
SYNOPSIS
sysmerge [-bdp]
DESCRIPTION
sysmerge is a utility designed to help the administrator update
configuration files after upgrading to a new release or snapshot.
sysmerge works by comparing a reference root directory against currently
installed files.
sysmerge will work through the fileset, offering the chance to merge any
differences using sdiff(1). Merged files may be edited using the default
editor or be left to deal with at a later date. Should any problems
occur, such as a failure to upgrade a file, the user will be notified and
will have to deal with the issue by hand.
By default (if -d is not used) sysmerge only compares files whose
reference sources have changed since the last run and attempts to
automatically upgrade them to the newest version, provided that they have
no local changes. It automatically installs missing files and binaries,
and updates files differing only by CVS Id. Files whose reference
sources have matching CVS Id are skipped from comparison. /etc/fbtab and
/etc/ttys are created using helper scripts and are always compared.
Users and groups that are missing from the current installation but
present in the new master.passwd(5) and group(5) files will always be
automatically (re)created.
sysmerge will finish by running mtree(8) to make sure the directory
structure has correct permissions.
The options are as follows:
-b Batch mode. sysmerge runs non-interactively, saving differing
files for later manual processing.
-d Diff mode. sysmerge does not take any automatic action, allowing
for a full diff comparison.
-p Package mode. sysmerge only compares the default configuration
files of installed packages(7) against their target on the system
(@sample).
Files can be excluded from comparison by listing them in
/etc/sysmerge.ignore. Checksum files stored under /var/sysmerge as well
as the following files will always be skipped from direct comparison:
/etc/group, /etc/localtime, /etc/master.passwd, /etc/motd, /etc/passwd,
/etc/pwd.db, /etc/spwd.db, /var/db/locate.database, /var/mail/root.
ENVIRONMENT
EDITOR, VISUAL Specifies an editor to use. If both EDITOR and VISUAL
are set, VISUAL takes precedence. If neither EDITOR nor
VISUAL are set, the default is vi(1).
PAGER Specifies the pagination program to use. If PAGER is
empty or not set, more(1) will be used.
FILES
/etc/sysmerge.ignore Files and directories to ignore from comparison.
/var/sysmerge/backups Directory containing backup of sysmerge last run
modified files. Rotated automatically in order
of increasing age from backups.0 to backups.3.
/var/sysmerge/etc.tgz Base system set containing the reference files
corresponding to the currently installed release.
/var/sysmerge/xetc.tgz X(7) set containing the reference files
corresponding to the currently installed release.
SEE ALSO
more(1), sdiff(1), sysupgrade(8)
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/current.html
https://www.openbsd.org/faq/upgradeXX.html
HISTORY
The sysmerge script first appeared in OpenBSD 4.4.
AUTHORS
sysmerge was written by Antoine Jacoutot <
[email protected]>. It was
originally started as a friendly fork from mergemaster by Douglas Barton
<
[email protected]>.
FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 September 5, 2024 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8