Re: keeping /etc under git with etckeeper

["Edward Z. Yang" <edwardzyang@thewritingpot.com>]

Pierre-Julien Bringer wrote:
> Do you think storing the etc directory in git with etckeeper is a good
> thing? I've heard it was not recommended to do so for the home
> directory, but also for /etc:

I've been using etckeeper for a while now, and it's working reasonably
well. The one thing I personally don't like, however, is the fact that
etckeeper automatically commits a dirty /etc state before the
auto-commits for any installed packages. I.e. auto-commit on apt-get
GOOD, auto-commit on other changes BAD. Fortunately, it's relatively
easy to change the commit hooks to do your bidding. :-)

With carefully issued Git commands, you can have Git refuse to touch any
files when there is a merge conflict, so you can resolve it in another
checkout. Of course, Git makes it extremely easy to back out a failed
merge, so as long as there isn't an essential process polling /etc every
few seconds, you should be savvy if you revert before a reboot.