From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jun 30 00:26:43 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1885216A41F for ; Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:26:43 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd-unix@earthlink.net) Received: from fall-curlleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net (fall-curlleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net [207.69.195.105]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E603E13C45A for ; Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:26:42 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bsd-unix@earthlink.net) Received: from pop-scotia.atl.sa.earthlink.net ([207.69.195.65]) by fall-curlleaf.atl.sa.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 4.34) id 1I4QTZ-0001n7-B7 for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:06:09 -0400 Received: from fl-76-1-181-252.dhcp.embarqhsd.net ([76.1.181.252] helo=kt.weeeble.com) by pop-scotia.atl.sa.earthlink.net with smtp (Exim 3.36 #1) id 1I4QSI-0002xd-00; Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:04:50 -0400 Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:04:48 -0400 From: Randy Pratt To: "Michael P. Soulier" Message-Id: <20070629200448.293e12e4.bsd-unix@earthlink.net> In-Reply-To: <20070629231452.GK18911@tigger.digitaltorque.ca> References: <20070629231452.GK18911@tigger.digitaltorque.ca> X-Mailer: Sylpheed 2.4.2 (GTK+ 2.10.12; i386-portbld-freebsd6.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: running portupgrade -a X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:26:43 -0000 On Fri, 29 Jun 2007 19:14:52 -0400 "Michael P. Soulier" wrote: > Hi, > > It seems like a lot of people keep their ports regularly up to date by just > running portupgrade -a. I've seen it online, and in books. I've been updating ports daily for several years using portupgrade since that seemed the best for me. Doing it on a frequent basis usually keeps the number of ports changing to a smaller number and it seems easier to track down any issues that crop up. > As /usr/ports/UPDATING is rather large, it seems impossible to look for > potential issues with every package that you're going to upgrade. So, is > running portupgrade -a a good idea, as you likely haven't checked for issues > for your system? Its only necessary to check the entries in UPDATING since your last update. If you don't check the entries before updating, its possible that a problem might happen. The more frequent you update, the less new entries there are to check of course. > Otherwise, the ports change so fast that if you don't regularly update, when > you do go to upgrade you may find yourself in a difficult position to do so. Agreed. It may even reach the point where so many ports need updated that it may be just as fast to deinstall all ports and install fresh. Frequent updating also gains you more familarity with the ports system. I don't think there are any tools that are 100% perfect and human errors do happen. HTH Randy --