Tracking /etc files (was: Re: hg add default behaviour...)

[Mirosław Baran]

[Use of mercurial in configuration files management]

> > No hooks, it's just storing the file contents. Wouldn't be at all
> > difficult to write something that would store permissions and other

> It's extremely nice, because there is just one special directory; I
> disliked subversion's '.svn's all over the tree messing up any find's, but
> Mercurial plays nicely indeed.

While this might seem to work (FSVO 'work'), I would discourage such
approach in any bigger environment; it's a problem waiting to happend.
Why?

-> the repository is in the same place as the actual ('working') data
[therefore]
-> there's no way to enforce integrity of the configuration in the long run
-> there are better tools for managing systems configuration

I'd rather use a version control system to manage a repository of
configuration objects for cfengine or puppet and then use the
aforementioned software to control the configuration.

Best regards
Jubal