Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 12:07:13 +0200 From: Oliver Fuchs <oliverfuchs@onlinehome.de> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: FreeBSD STABLE, CURRENT and upgrading Message-ID: <20041021100713.GA2653@oliverfuchs.onlinehome.de>
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Hi All, I am using FreeBSD since 5.2 RELEASE and I am now running 5.2.1 RELEASE. I upgraded between the two versions from scratch that means I backuped the main configuration files and directories (like home), deleted the old version, installed the new one and reconfigured the whole system. As I see 5.3 is now coming up so I want to avoid this procedure. I have read the handbook, the FAQs and Greg Lehey's book 'The complete FreeBSD'.But I am still quite unsure/confused about some aspects of FreeBSD philosophy. 1) CURRENT and STABLE As I read in the FAQS there are two main development branches: STABLE and CURRENT. At the moment the 4-STABLE is the STABLE-branch and the 5-CURRENT is the current brunch up to the point where it gets STABLE (I think it is 5.3). Then the CURRENT branch will change to 6? Is that right. Then FreeBSD would have two STABLE branches (4 and 5) so what will then be the difference between them? Or will the 4 branch be ended? So I am not quiet sure about this terminology. 2) Updating 5.2.1 As far as I understood there are three parts of the system that have to be upgraded: kernel userland ports So to do the first two ones I am going to use sysinstall (I use a slow internet connection so I have to by the CDs with binary collection). After userland and kernel have been upgraded I need to upgrade my prts/packages. Therefore I copy my binary packages (from the CDs) to /usr/ports/packages/All and first run portversion and then portupgrade -P Is this all for now? 3) Get the latest security patches/packages On the FreeBSD security page I have read about three security patches for the 5.2.1 RELAESE. They only affected the kernel. Running freebsd-update gave me a lot more security hints but for the packages. So am I right believing that the security patches only regard kernel and to get the latest package-updates I have to run freebsd-update? Or is there another possibility? Thanx for your patience and help in advance Oliver -- ... don't touch the bang bang fruit
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