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Date:      Sun, 17 Dec 2006 10:07:23 -0600
From:      Astrodog <astrodog@gmail.com>
To:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Am I an Idiot?
Message-ID:  <2fd864e0612170807x20ff699x42538cfa497c1398@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <45851DBC.9010604@FreeBSD.org>
References:  <4579EB08.8080704@intersonic.se> <20061210.230622.-1844001233.imp@bsdimp.com> <45845F8B.3060304@intersonic.se> <45851DBC.9010604@FreeBSD.org>

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Something that, in my opinion, may have been missed in all of this,

Why, exactly, do you want to run -CURRENT in production? As others have said
above, its certainly possible to do. I've done it before myself, but always
because of a specific feature, or bit of supported hardware, that didn't
exist in -STABLE.

Running -CURRENT is quite a bit more work than running -STABLE. The fact
that a -CURRENT kernel and world can build and run on a test system, does
little to indicate what type of performance, and stability you will see in a
production environment. Many of the problems that may exist in -CURRENT will
be induced by specific types of load. Race conditions, Lock Order Reversal,
and certain driver issues in many cases, only appear under particularly
heavy loads, or particular types of load.
What this means, simply, is that when you test the next version of -CURRENT
you'd like to run, there's quite a bit of testing you'll have to do. Along
side this type of problem, is the issue of security. If you are running
-CURRENT as of 2 weeks ago, and a security vulnerability is discovered, in
some cases, you will be compelled to upgrade to the latest -CURRENT, even if
it has known stability problems, or performance/functionality regression.

None of this should be construed to imply that -CURRENT cannot be run in
production, only that you really should have a compelling reason to do so...
or at the very least, quite a bit of free time.

--- Harrison Grundy



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