RFE: a bit more flexibility in handling modified files (conffile prompt)
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| update-manager (Ubuntu) |
Confirmed
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
I just finished doing an update of gdm through update-manager. I was thoroughly impressed with the fact that I got a graphical "keep/replace" window complete with a diff of the gdm.conf file which I had previously edited. Can I make a couple of suggestions to enhance that experience?
1) a "side-by-side" diff (i.e. like vim -d) will probably be more intuitive for users not familiar with looking at context diffs
2) in fact, giving the option to opening a vim -d (like) window with both files where you can easily edit the .dpkg-new to match the changes you made to the existing file would be superb
3) is it feasible to keep a copy of all configuration files in a package so that when upgrade time comes and apt detects a file has been changed, it has a pristine copy it can produce a diff against and try to apply that same diff to the new file -- all with user interaction and confirmation of course
- perhaps a repository of pristine files can be kept which apt can go and fetch a pristine copy for a diff
4) the "cats ass" would be a kind of interface built on the above where a graphical interface shows each of the diffs in a side-by-side mode from the patch produced from (3) and a checkbox for which ones to try to apply
Thoughts?
| Changed in update-manager: | |
| importance: | Undecided → Wishlist |
| status: | Unconfirmed → Confirmed |
| Colin Watson (cjwatson) wrote | #1 |
| Przemek K. (azrael) wrote | #2 |
Along similar lines, a friend pointed out on IRC that update-manager's graphical conffile prompt window ought to offer at least all the options that dpkg's standard conffile prompt does (possibly except for starting a new shell to examine the situation). It doesn't seem to let you show the old/new files or to edit the file.