Using SVN to version configuration files.

Hi,

First post, so hello to all.

I have a couple of Debian Linux machines, which I use to run Nagios, a
network monitoring application.
The config for Nagios is text based, typically a collection of text
files.
The files can be a bit fiddly, so generally I TAR up[ the whole folder
before making significant changes.

I was thinking perhaps SVN might be useful here; make some changes test
them and commit them. Nice to be able to roll back should things not
work out.

I've installed SVN from Debian Sarge's apt repository, svn v1.1.4-2.
I'm not sure I fully understand how SVN works in practice, this is what
I have done :

Made a repository folder
        /usr/local/svn/nagios

Create a SVN repository
        svnadmin create /usr/local/svn/nagios/

Imported my live Nagios config
        svn import /usr/local/nagios/etc file:///usr/local/svn/nagios

What would be intuitive for me, would be to carry on and edit my config
files, test them, be happy with them.
Then, commit the changes I've made to SVN as a new version of the files.

What I'm not clear on is, the files in /usr/local/nagios, are they my
nagios config files, or are they SVNs version of the most recent files ?
Rather, is it ok to edit these files, or should I 'checkout' a copy of
these files to work on and then commit them, back to the live system ?

If I need to check them out, then it's going to be difficult to test
them, as they won't be in the right place (for nagios).

Or do I move all the config files to start with, import them, and then
use checkout to put them in their natural operating location.
I have two Nagios machines, would I then checkout the committed config
to the alternate device ?

Well, I hope I've articulated what I'm trying to achieve, well enough
for someone to offer useful advice.

Thanks

Matthew Joyce
02 9382 0051 | IT Manager | Children's Cancer Institute Australia for
Medical Research

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Received on Wed Nov 8 07:06:26 2006