Date: Fri, 8 May 2026 09:37:32 -0700 From: David Wolfskill <david@catwhisker.org> To: bob prohaska <fbsd@www.zefox.net> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Update strategy and timing Message-ID: <af4RTDJEBa0ZyD_p@albert.catwhisker.org> In-Reply-To: <af4FwVaA_3P4yam-@www.zefox.net>
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[-- Attachment #1 --] On Fri, May 08, 2026 at 08:48:17AM -0700, bob prohaska wrote: > Is there a preferred strategy to timing updates > for self-hosted FreeBSD systems? I am not aware of anything approaching "consensus" on that. > On the stable branches it's easy; just update when > updates are announced and build/install. Once caught > up, things can be left alone for days at least.. That does not match my perception (unless one substitutes "releng branches" for "stable branches"). > With -current there's essentially no pause in the > stream of fresh commits, so git finds a new commit > by the time buildworld finishes. Mostly, except that there are ... fluctuations in the flow ... newar significant code freezes. > Is there some marker or indicator that signals the > -current tree is at least nominally consistent and > buildable? I'm not asking if it'll work, just whenter > it's worth a try. Not that I am aware of. > ... > Is this approach at all sound? Is there a better way? Caveat: I do not claim that this is "better" (or even "plausibly doable") for others; it seems to work passably well for me. Sketched roughly (further details at https://www.catwhisker.org/~david/FreeBSD/upgrade.html): * I have a handful of machines on which I track head & stable (at the moment, stable/15; usually, whatever is jthe most recent stable release), and where I update all installed ports daily. * Each of them has a local private mirror of the 3 FreeBSD.org repositories: doc, ports, & src. * One of those machines (which is also my package-builder for the machines that I only update weekly) actually syncs its mirror with upstream as of 03:25 local time. The others sync from it 5 minutes later. * One of the laptops in question is the one I use for day-to-day work; it's the one I am using to type this message (though the mutt process is running on one of the "only weekly" machines). * Other than ports that provide kernel modules, the ports/packages are built (only) under stable, and /usr/local is the same whether a given machine is running head or stable. I will generally install misc/compat* ports as needed (and then remove them when they are no longer necessary -- e.g., after migrating from stable/14 to stable/15). * This usually works well (for me), but there is occasional ... turbulence. Sometimes, it's straightforward to address; sometimes ... not so much. * I have been doing this for a little over 2 decades; fairly diligently for the last decade or so. > Thanks for reading! > > bob prohaska > ... Peace, david -- David H. Wolfskill david@catwhisker.org See https://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key. [-- Attachment #2 --] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iNUEARYKAH0WIQRCec5RsK7Enudh3yGB9MJ9AwUELQUCaf4RTF8UgAAAAAAuAChp c3N1ZXItZnByQG5vdGF0aW9ucy5vcGVucGdwLmZpZnRoaG9yc2VtYW4ubmV0NDI3 OUNFNTFCMEFFQzQ5RUU3NjFERjIxODFGNEMyN0QwMzA1MDQyRAAKCRCB9MJ9AwUE Le8pAP4v8B62XEcC4vlwM8Xz8k7Xe+5gnOtb4W/OA3k4Qi+XwwD+N7PSbpPqDp0O bmKFKo67zeAu6cmiBNLVjpoTY/D9bgs= =G341 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----home | help
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