*IMPORTNANT: 18 config files in /etc need updating.

[Ginja_Ninja]

hi, i am currentlyinstalling gentoo stage 2 after a few hassles....https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=127033

i have got to the stage were i type: emerge -k sys-kernel/gentoo-sources

it says, and did before i typed that, this

*GNU info directory index is up-to-date
*IMPORTNANT: 18 config files in /etc need updating.

How would i fix this before i carry on ??? Is it safe to carry on??

Thanks

[steveb]

you need to update some config files. try runing etc-update.

cheers

SteveB

[jaska]

By running etc-update, however I warn you that it will overwrite your important files if you let it so watch it.

You can also ignore them, most of the time the config files want to be upgraded over nothing.

[Ginja_Ninja]

if i do an update like you say, am i at this stage of the installation goingto need to re-do any of the steps?

Thanks for the help

[LostSon]

i 2 have like 26 config files that need to b update i have updated a few of them but some are really different so im not sure what to do. Is it safe to ignore alot of them as u say tehy want to b upgraded over nothing or will this screw things up in the future?

[uglyman]

hi,
it is a good idea to keep your /etc/ as up to date as possible. some people say you can ignore lots of stuff, which is true, but you may have issues. It takes a while to get the hang of etc-update so like they said be CAREFUL. it is a bummer to carefully set your use flags and then overwrite make.conf over very small changes.

as a rule of thumb I do it like this:

If the file in question is an update to something I haven't changed (ie any default config file) I go ahead and update to the new one and delete the old one. The developers of the program might have changed a default or whatever.

If the file looks like a script of some sort, not a config file, but a bunch of shell/perl/python whatever, then it is safe to guess I never messed with it before and I should delete the old and update. Often times little bugs in gentoo will get fixed by updating an init script or something like that.

if the only difference seems to be the header (comments at the top with version numbers and stuff) and it is something I have edited: I use etc-update to delete the new one and keep the old one

finally if it doesn't fit one of these categories you need to be REAL careful. This would be updates to files you edited at some point, like fstab or make.conf. IF you blindly overwrite these you can cause big trouble until you reconfig them. Either learn to use the merge feature of etc-update, or (the way I do it) just exit etc-update and open the files with your favorite editor and do it by hand. then run etc-update again. Even with a huge number of files in etc-update there is usually only a couple I have to do this for. If you blindly use the old one, you will sometimes have trouble because the syntax of config files changes occasionally when a new version of the program is released. If you are sure that the format of the config file hasn't changed (which is kind of rare that it would change) it is safe to ignore the update, but I have gotten into trouble doing this before, and then reading the man page or release notes of the program in question and finding that it doesn't use the same config files anymore.

later
uglyman

[LostSon]

thanks