Re: /etc in git?

Adam Hunt [off-list ref] writes:

Do you have any more details by chance?  Does it work?  Does it work
well?  How does one do it?

I personally feel it is a horrible and stupid thing to do, if by
"version control /etc" you mean to have /.git which controls
/etc/hosts and stuff in place.  It would work (git does not
refuse to run as root).  But being a *source* control system, we
deliberately refuse to store the full permission bits, so if
your /etc/shadow is mode 0600 while /etc/hosts is mode 0644, you
have to make sure they stay that way after checking things out.

You are much better off to keep /usr/src/rootstuff/.git (and
working tree files are /usr/src/rootstuff/etc/hosts and
friends), have a build procedure (read: Makefile) there, and
version control that source directory.  I usually have 'install'
and 'diff' target in that Makefile, so that I can do this:

	$ cd /usr/src/rootstuff
        $ make diff ;# to see if somebody edited any targets by hand
	$ edit etc/hosts
	$ git diff ;# to see the source change
        $ make diff ;# to see the change I am going to install
        $ su
        # make install; exit
        $ git commit -a -m 'Add a new host.'

Being able to run "diff" before actually doing it is very handy
and useful safety/sanity measure.

Obviously, /usr/src/rootstuff/ should be mode 0770 or stricter,
owned by the operator group; it would contain some sensitive
information.