From owner-freebsd-pkg@freebsd.org Wed Sep 9 13:28:00 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-pkg@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BF4AF3D0F53 for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:28:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matthew@FreeBSD.org) Received: from smtp.freebsd.org (smtp.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::24b:4]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 (256/256 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256 client-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) client-digest SHA256) (Client CN "smtp.freebsd.org", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4BmjWN4Vcdz4GVv for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:28:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matthew@FreeBSD.org) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.2.117.100]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk", Issuer "Let's Encrypt Authority X3" (verified OK)) (Authenticated sender: matthew/mail) by smtp.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 5DCDB2F418 for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:28:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matthew@FreeBSD.org) Received: from PD0786.local (130.31-255-62.static.virginmediabusiness.co.uk [62.255.31.130]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (128/128 bits) key-exchange X25519 server-signature RSA-PSS (4096 bits) server-digest SHA256) (No client certificate requested) (Authenticated sender: m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id C2394A4E1 for ; Wed, 9 Sep 2020 13:27:57 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk; dmarc=none (p=none dis=none) header.from=FreeBSD.org Authentication-Results: smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk/C2394A4E1; dkim=none; dkim-atps=neutral Subject: Re: Exploring the updateability of FreeBSD 8.2 -> 12.1 To: freebsd-pkg@freebsd.org References: <2a78c4416eaa4bb90665075743ba7e7a@ultra-secure.de> <20200909130242.GA90890@freefall.freebsd.org> From: matthew@FreeBSD.org Message-ID: <6b2eea23-5ac1-73a2-1c3a-7cece6efebc6@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2020 14:27:56 +0100 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.15; rv:68.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/68.12.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20200909130242.GA90890@freefall.freebsd.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Language: en-GB Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-pkg@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: Binary package management and package tools discussion List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Sep 2020 13:28:00 -0000 On 09/09/2020 14:02, Rene Ladan wrote: > On Wed, Sep 09, 2020 at 09:40:38AM +0200, rainer@ultra-secure.de wrote: >> Hi, >> >> I may be in a position to have to upgrade a FreeBSD 8.2 host to a >> supported version (so I can install the latest packages). >> >> Obviously, this is still with the old pkg_* tools. >> >> Do I do the conversion at the end (when I'm on 12.1) or at the beginning >> (when I'm on 9.3)? > > I think it is best to do it as early as possible. ports-mgmt/pkg used to > have a script pkg2ng to do this conversion for you but it no longer does. > >> >> I have my own pourdriere package builder and thanks to some hoarding, I >> think I still have pretty much all the packages even of 9.something, >> somewhere. >> > Mmm, perhaps it is a good idea to delete the old-generation packages and > replace them with these cached packages first and then upgrade the OS > and packages? For such a large jump in versions, it would probably be a good idea to obtain a new hard drive and do a complete fresh install of FreeBSD from scratch, install all the necessary packages, copy over data and add any local configuration to replicate the functionality of the old system. This has several advantages: * You will still have the original 8.2 system available to revert back to in case of problems * You can adapt the disk partitioning to suit what current FreeBSD needs, or you change low level things like switching from UFS to ZFS if desired. * It takes the pressure off -- you can in principle work on installing the new system off-line, apply whatever acceptance tests you need and then only have as much downtime as it takes to swap in the new drive. Cheers, Matthew