Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:24:43 +0800 From: John/SML <john@sml.citizen.co.jp> To: David Wood <david@wood2.org.uk> Cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org Subject: Re: vsftpd-2.0.6 failed to compile on FreeBSD-4.11-p26 Message-ID: <OF0D465062.BD91AA87-ON4825742C.000761E7-4825742C.0007C128@sml.citizen.co.jp>
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Hi David,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Then, I think the appropriate way to keep up with port updates is to
upgrade from FreeBSD 4.11 to FreeBSD 7. However, it is possible to use the
"build world" method to upgrade from 4.11 to 7, or I have to use the
binary upgrade method by using the FreeBSD 7 CD media.
Thanks a lot.
John Mok
David Wood <david@wood2.org.uk>
04/14/2008 09:00 PM
To: John/SML <john@sml.citizen.co.jp>
cc: freebsd-ports@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: vsftpd-2.0.6 failed to compile on FreeBSD-4.11-p26
Hi John,
In message
<OFB6E8FD1F.0FD557C7-ON4825742B.00267B12-4825742B.00271B2D@sml.citizen.co
.jp>, John/SML <john@sml.citizen.co.jp> writes
>I tried to install the vsftpd-2.0.6 port on FreeBSD 4.11-p26, but failed
>with the following error message :-
The ports tree has not supported FreeBSD 4 for over a year now - see the
entry in /usr/ports/UPDATING of 20070205. The last version of the ports
tree that supports 4.x has the RELEASE_4_EOL CVS tag; vsftpd-2.0.5 is
available with that tag.
Whilst you may be able to persuade individual ports to work if you apply
their changes to a RELEASE_4_EOL ports tree, the ports tree
infrastructure no longer works with FreeBSD 4, ports are no longer
tested with FreeBSD 4, packages are not being built for FreeBSD 4 any
more and anything FreeBSD 4 specific is steadily being removed from
individual ports. Thinking about the ports I maintain (net/freeradius,
net/freeradius-mysql and net/freeradius2), I don't believe any of them
will now build on FreeBSD 4, even with a FreeBSD 4 compatible ports tree
infrastructure. Certainly some FreeBSD 4 specific Makefile lines and
patches have been removed.
There are still reasons to be fond of FreeBSD 4 - but it is now
obsolete. There were people that wanted support to continue for version
4, but there weren't the spare resources available within a volunteer
project and nobody was prepared to put up the necessary money to pay for
further FreeBSD 4 support. Most volunteer developers are inevitably more
interested in working at or near the bleeding edge than in maintaining
support for increasingly obsolete legacy versions.
This means that there's no longer any security updates or security team
support for FreeBSD 4 - which I would regard as a more pressing reason
to upgrade from FreeBSD 4 to a supported version than there no longer
being any ports tree upgrades. Of course, with an unsupported version of
FreeBSD, you can't benefit from any security related upgrades to ports
either.
In a similar vein, FreeBSD 5 will become end of life at the end of May,
and the ports tree will then be dropping FreeBSD 5 support.
I suspect that there will be at most one more release of FreeBSD 6, and
it's possible that 6.3-RELEASE might be the last release of FreeBSD 6.
FreeBSD 6 will go end of life sooner rather than later. Unfortunately,
FreeBSD 7 was a long time coming for various reasons, which means that
there's a fairly big leap in code terms from 6 to 7 - but that means
there's also a lot of new features and enhancements in 7.
It's too difficult to keep supporting multiple different versions of
FreeBSD across all the different architectures, especially when the
versions are as widely different as FreeBSD 6 and 7 are in some areas.
From June 1 onwards, the ports tree will still have three major versions
of FreeBSD to support - 6, 7 and 8 (-CURRENT). I do confess to some
relief as a mere ports maintainer in no longer having to support FreeBSD
4; it was so far removed from the FreeBSD 6 machine that I was doing the
bulk of my work on.
Either upgrade to a newer version of FreeBSD or, I'm afraid, you're on
your own. If you're upgrading now, FreeBSD 7 is recommended; as I
explained earlier, because FreeBSD 7 was a long time in coming, FreeBSD
6 is already well on in its lifecycle.
If you choose to upgrade, with all the changes between FreeBSD 4 and
FreeBSD 7, I suspect backing up your data and starting again with a new
installation is likely to be the best way ahead.
Meanwhile, there seem to be two lessons to be learnt from this list
still getting questions about FreeBSD 4.
Firstly, it's a reminder to everyone to read /usr/ports/UPDATING (or
wherever that file resides on your machine) after updating your ports
tree.
Secondly, if there isn't an explicit "This version of the ports tree
does not support your obsolete and unsupported version of FreeBSD.
Consider upgrading to a newer version of FreeBSD." warning when support
for a version of FreeBSD is removed, is it worth adding the necessary
code in the future? I can see other OSVERSION related conditionals in
bsd.port.mk, but not this one - though I could have missed it and it's
elsewhere in the ports tree infrastructure.
Best wishes,
David
--
David Wood
david@wood2.org.uk
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