freebsd stable - Apr 2021 - etcupdate -p vs. root on zfs (and bectl use and such): no /usr/src/etc/master.passwd (for example)

FYI: The default bsdinstall result for auto ZFS that I tried
has a separate zroot/usr/src dataset, which zfs mounts at
/usr/src .

UPDATING and such places indicate sequences like:
(think etcupdate where it lists mergemaster and ignore
-F and -Fi)

	<make sure you have good level 0 dumps>
	make buildworld
	make buildkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE
	make installkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE
							[1]
	<reboot in single user>				[3]
	mergemaster -Fp					[5]
NOTE: What /usr/src/etc/master.passwd here? (for example)
	make installworld
	mergemaster -Fi					[4]
	make delete-old					[6]
	<reboot>

etcupdate has the logic for handling -p:

        if [ -n "$preworld" ]; then
                # Build a limited tree that only contains files that are
                # crucial to installworld.
                for file in $PREWORLD_FILES; do
                        name=$(basename $file)
                        mkdir -p $1/etc >&3 2>&1 || return 1
                        cp -p $SRCDIR/$file $1/etc/$name || return 1
                done

Note the "$SRCDIR/$file". But for a boot -s after
installing the kernel there is only zroot/ROOT/NAME
and no zroot/usr/src zfs mount so /usr/src/ is empty.

This leads to needing an additional step:

zfs mount zroot/usr/src

(The instructions do not deal with making / writable at this
stage either.)



==Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com
( dsl-only.net went
away in early 2018-Mar)

On 23/04/2021 08:39, Mark Millard via freebsd-current wrote:
> 	<reboot in single user>				[3]

With regard to mounting ZFS file systems in single user mode

What's currently footnote 3 will probably become footnote 4, please see:

<https://reviews.freebsd.org/D29934#inline-186101>

? and so on.

On 2021-Apr-25, at 08:14, Graham Perrin <grahamperrin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 23/04/2021 08:39, Mark Millard via freebsd-current wrote:
> 
>> 	<reboot in single user>				[3]
> 
> 
> With regard to mounting ZFS file systems in single user mode
> 
> What's currently footnote 3 will probably become footnote 4, please
see:
> 
> <https://reviews.freebsd.org/D29934#inline-186101>
> 
> ? and so on.
If it were me, I'd probably do something to make the
mounting of file systems and such have an explicit
reminder as its own step, something like:

	<reboot in single user>
	<mount file systems, cd to src, adjust time>	[4]
	mergemaster -Fp					[5]

I just do not think of such as part of <reboot in single user>:
it is already rebooted in single user at that point in my
view.

Sorry that I missed what was there in UPDATING.

However, /usr/src/Makefile has:

#  1.  `cd /usr/src'       (or to the directory containing your source
tree).
#  2.  `make buildworld'
#  3.  `make buildkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE'     (default is
GENERIC).
#  4.  `make installkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE'   (default is
GENERIC).
#       [steps 3. & 4. can be combined by using the "kernel"
target]
#  5.  `reboot'        (in single user mode: boot -s from the loader
prompt).
#  6.  `mergemaster -p'
#  7.  `make installworld'
#  8.  `mergemaster'            (you may wish to use -i, along with -U or
-F).
#  9.  `make delete-old'
# 10.  `reboot'
# 11.  `make delete-old-libs' (in case no 3rd party program uses them
anymore)

without such material, even in footnotes.


Side notes:

"From the bootblocks, boot -s, and then do":
"From the boot loader, boot -s, and then do"?

etcupdate vs. mergemaster and the $FreeBSD$ issue?
Is mergemaster going to stay as the recommented
command to use? If so, with which command line
options?

==Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com
( dsl-only.net went
away in early 2018-Mar)