How does system upgrade handle files in /etc ?

[danfluidmind]

Hi all.

I understand Ubuntu Linux is easily upgraded from one release to the next. My question is, how does an entire system upgrade handle the files in /etc ? For instance, in FreeBSD when I do a "make world" from version 6.0 to version 6.1, it does a diff on those files in /etc that have had things added to them in the new release and allows me to add those things in manually so that I don't mess up the changes I've made. What happens when you upgrade Ubuntu Linux from an old release to the latest and the new release has things that it has changed in /etc ?

Thanks
--Dan

[aysiu]

It asks you whether you want to keep the old configuration file or use the new one.

I generally use the new one, as that seems to lend itself to stability. I can always change it after the upgrade. Usually an upgrade affects only one or two files.

[danfluidmind]

Thanks a lot. When you choose to use the new one, does it make a backup of the old one?

--Dan