Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 14:10:02 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com> To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: docs/34038 Message-ID: <200202052210.g15MA2A16493@freefall.freebsd.org>
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The following reply was made to PR docs/34038; it has been noted by GNATS. From: Tom Rhodes <darklogik@pittgoth.com> To: Szilveszter Adam <sziszi@bsd.hu>, FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org, Hiten Pandya <hitmaster2k@yahoo.com> Cc: Subject: Re: docs/34038 Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2002 17:10:37 -0500 I am going to defend the hours of work I did on this document... Szilveszter Adam wrote: > Hello, > > I think that instead of pushing this submission, please provide some > justification *why* this article should go in. Okie, may I do this though? I hope as the author my reasons will be as worthwhile has his! > > I have just looked over it (which was not exactly made easier by the > submitter who uuencoded *and* tar gzipped the article, which is IMHO > quite gross for a single text file) and I see not a lot of info there > that is not yet in various parts of the Handbook. http://www.FreeBSD.org/docproj and I wish to point out Nik Clayton's document suggestion method: tar, gzip, uuencode. For more information about submitting documentation for the Docproj, please see the docproj webpage about submitting documentation located at: http://www.freebsd.org/docproj/submitting.html I know thats kinda cut short, but in essance sums up the uuencode and the gzip. Many people have submitted uuencoded zipped files and have had ABSOLUTLY no problems. > In some cases, the > info in the article is less accurate than the Handbook, which eg > describes anon FTP and CTM in detail. Also, the text has some incorrect > statements. Eg: mergemaster(8) is not a bash script. From the mergemaster(8) man page, under DESCRIPTION, and an exact quote: "mergemaster is a Bourne shell script which is designed to aid you in updating the various configuration and other files associated with FreeBSD." If in some point and time, bash and Bourne again somehow demerged, I think that many universities, companies, oganizations, and other entities are very miss informed... > There are no bash > scripts in the base system. See my above statement... I'm almost positive that mergemaster(8) is in the base system. > Also, it says that cvsup needs bandwidth. > While it is true that it will not hurt, in my experience daily cvsup > runs took almost exactly the same amount of time over the 10Mbps link at > university and over a 56kbps modem link. From the handbook: CTM uses a push method, cvsup uses a pull method, so its obvious that CTM is more friendly on the server bandwidth... If this statement is incorrect, instead of saying my document is wrong, tell us the handbook is wrong also so that we can fix it, don't just point a finger at one entity please > > Also, I think you should be careful when describing the a.out -> elf > migration path. It was a special case and is probably more trouble than > just running "make upgrade" and "make aout-to-elf". The mailing list > archives from the time when 3.0 was new should be consulted to see any > pitfalls. Also, I think it does not work as easily as described, ie you > cannot simply take the latest STABLE code and upgrade to it from 2.2.x > using source upgrade. Instead, once somebody described the process like > this (after doing it himself) I actually tested this on a 2.2.5 cd that came with an older version of "The Complete FreeBSD" written by core member Greg Lehey, took some of the information from /usr/src/Makefile, and even read over various materials associated with my project. I even went as far, as to read over Greg's methods and information... and talked with a few developers on the issue. > > - First, upgrade to the latest 2.2.8-STABLE. > - Do the upgrade to 3.0 using the a.out -> elf migration path and > looking at the mailing list archives. > - Upgrade to the latest 3.x-STABLE (which is something like 3.5.1-STABLE > now) > - Upgrade to 4.0 or 4.1 perhaps. > - Upgrade to the latest 4.x-STABLE. > > Yes, it is quite difficult, simply reinstalling from CD or FTP is > probably easier. Merging /etc would be very difficult too. Not to > mention /dev and the fact that you have to recompile many software > packages from third-party source. During the upgrade process of the SOFTWARE, a few ports still used the a.out method, this was during a time that the a.out > ELF transision was in progress. Now that FreeBSD is ELF, and the ports have been cleaned up, I see no reason for all this trouble when *I* had none > > The gist: Although cutting corners might work once or twice, the source > upgrade path is actually only for those who are quite good at what they > do and even then you should follow the guidelines. > > The text also has stylistic and spelling errors/typos. Maybe aspell didn't do its job as well as I thought it would, I have been meaning to add information on libraries and other things, maybe i'll take another look at it, if your correct on that notion, then its an admitted mistake... > > Please, before answering, look over the existing documentation set (incl > Handbook, FAQ, etc) and say what information this article has that is > not in one of the existing docs already. If you find any of them lacking > please consider submitting patches there, first. Umm, the Handbook is where I obtained most of my refs, and I will agree that the handbook lacks upgrading information, but it is one of the things on my to do list. Unfortunatly, like many, I also lack many free hours that could be put to better use. > In either case, thanks for at least taking a look over the document in the first place, at least I know someone read over it ;) For more refs of where I got my information I suggest "The Complete FreeBSD" by Greg Lehey. The various written information in the source, the FreeBSD Handbook, and the various system man pages. Thanks alot!! -- Tom (Darklogik) Rhodes www.Pittgoth.com Gothic Liberation Front www.FreeBSD.org The Power To Serve To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
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