What does 'mergemaster' do that 'make circulation' does not?
After calling make installworld (or make world), there are 2 means of upgrading source documents in the new globe: calling mergemaster -p or make distribution. I recognize that mergemaster calls make distribution yet what else does it do and also why would certainly I call it as opposed to simply make distribution?
make distribution simply mounts new arrangement documents, while mergemaster strolls interactively over all config documents and also asks you which ones you desire (and also smartly upgrades documents you never ever modified to begin with when possible). It also offers you the alternative to combine them as required. Primarily, it automates the procedure of mounting upgraded config documents, doing all the diffs instantly and also offering you a better means of combining the old and also new config trees.
If you're interested just how it functions, mergemaster is just a shell script.
Related questions