Does a system update wipe out user files?

DominikHoffmann

A while ago I installed the PHP code snippet for checking, whether new system updates are available, and notifying me via email, by @luckman212. I must have update the system (to 23.05) a little while later and just yesterday noticed that the PHP code was no longer at /root/.

My question is twofold:

Do system updates wipe out user-installed files?
If so, can this be prevented for this file at /root/?

Gertjan

@DominikHoffmann

See here :

https://forum.netgate.com/topic/137707/auto-update-check-checks-for-updates-to-base-system-packages-and-sends-email-alerts/20

I'm updating/upgrading for a decade or so, using Console (nearly always) or GUI (maybe ones) and not lost my own 'stuff' in root.
File system changes (upgrades) like going from UFS to ZFS will "destroy" the drive. That type of install can't be a "click in the GUI and done" but needs a USB drive, and booting from USB to re partition the drive etc.

DominikHoffmann

@Gertjan: I manage 4 or 5 Netgate firewalls. I yesterday found that /root/ had been wiped on all of them. I am pretty sure that it was not, when the upgrade to ZFS happened, but subsequently. Of course, this long after the fact it’s impossible to prove it.

One data point: In the case of just now updating one from 23.05 to 23.05.1, your PHP package stayed in place.

SteveITS

@DominikHoffmann Changing to ZFS wipes/repartitions the drive during the reinstall.