I only just noticed that I have competing scripts in /etc/rc.d, some with the suffix .new. It seems the rc.*.new scripts were introduced some time ago; I haven't used them. What's the deal? Should I delete the old scripts and rename the rc.*.new to rc.* ?

.new files are created when you upgrade a package with upgradepkg and the new package provides an updated config file or startup script. You should compare the existing file to the .new file and decide whether the old file should be updated or replaced, of if the .new file should simply be deleted.

slackpkg may also create .new files, but only after asking you whether you would like it to do so or not.

Just to clarify they aren't created by upgradepkg or slackpkg . A .new is normally packaged..considered for anything likely to be configured by the user and will only exist if there is already a file of the same name exsisting on the live system (hence upgrading.. Upgradepkg). This is by standard determined and established in the doinst.sh.

I.e.: http://mirrors.slackware.com/slackwa...ager/doinst.sh

Slackpkg can brutely handle these with the new-config CLP but I would recommend finding them and handling them manually with locate -r \.new$ (there's probably something wrong with that regex but you get the gist). And of course you'll want to have an update slocate db.

Use diff to compare the original and the new ones; it's often that those have necessary changes. If the only upgrades you've done have been for /patches then it's likely that there aren't any real differences, but check to be sure.

Something like this should help: