Handbook Talk:AMD64/Portage/Tools

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Add cfg-update

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This discussion is done as of October 31, 2021.

Would also be worth including 'cfg-update' which I use, too! Mjeveritt (talk) 10:11, 8 December 2016 (UTC)

This utility is not included in stage tarballs by default and - no offense to Rich - hasn't had a new release since Sep 30, 2014. We'll mention the Cfg-update article on this discussion page and call it good. We can't cover all the choices in the handbook. --Maffblaster (talk) 05:24, 1 November 2021 (UTC)

Recommend dispatch-conf over etc-update

Talk status

This discussion is done as of October 31, 2021.

As stated in the article, etc-update "is not as simple to use as dispatch-conf, nor as fully featured", and "does not preserve the old versions of the config files. Once a file is updated, the old version is gone forever. [...] using etc-update is significantly less safe than using dispatch-conf when desiring to keep old configuration files.".

I can see no advantage to using etc-update. To avoid any confusion, and to orient users towards the safer option, I think either a note recommending dispatch-conf over etc-update could be put at the start of the etc-update section, or the section removed completely (i.e. moved to a new article and archived).

From what I can gather from google and from forums, I can see nobody preferring etc-update, save from by habit.

Also, perhaps a link to the dispatch-conf wiki page, that has information on advanced configuration, would be useful.

Kyoreln (talk) 18:52, 3 July 2021 (UTC)

The note has been added. I think it should be mentioned as long as it's included with Portage - but certainly dispatch-conf is preferred. See Special:Diff/1026219/1026285. --Maffblaster (talk) 05:24, 1 November 2021 (UTC)

Great work, all these changes :). I didn't realize etc-config was part of Portage, of course it is. -- Kyoreln (talk) 10:04, 1 November 2021 (UTC)