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Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:08:57 -0700
From: Chris Stankevitz <cstankevitz@toyon.com>
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To: Chuck Swiger <cswiger@mac.com>
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Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Packages available for different FreeBSD versions
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Chuck,

Thank you for your help.  I have two questions:

Chuck Swiger wrote:
> Ports are not branched-- there is no STABLE or CURRENT for ports.  The 
> same ports tree can be used on 6.x, 7.x, and 8-CURRENT.

1. With what is the STABLE/CURRENT tag associated?
a) "core operating system version number"
b) the ports collection
c) something else

>> What are the repercussions of never updating the "core operating 
>> system version number"?
> 
> Well, you'll miss ongoing security updates and improvements to the 
> system.

2. I thought security updates and improvements to the system would 
arrive via the ports mechanism.  What kinds of things are not updated 
via ports?  (My experience is with Gentoo where everything is updated 
via portage and there is no "core operating system version number").

Thanks again,

Chris