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Date:      Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:41:40 +0000
From:      bugzilla-noreply@freebsd.org
To:        bugs@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   =?UTF-8?B?W0J1ZyAyNjU1OTRdIEl04oCZcyBoYXJkIHRvIGtub3cgd2hhdCB2?= =?UTF-8?B?ZXJzaW9uIG9mIEZyZWVCU0QgeW91IGFyZSBydW5uaW5nIChwcmltYXJpbHkg?= =?UTF-8?B?YSBkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIGlzc3VlKQ==?=
Message-ID:  <bug-265594-227@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>

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https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D265594

            Bug ID: 265594
           Summary: It=E2=80=99s hard to know what version of FreeBSD you a=
re
                    running (primarily a documentation issue)
           Product: Base System
           Version: CURRENT
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Many People
          Priority: ---
         Component: misc
          Assignee: bugs@FreeBSD.org
          Reporter: rwatson@FreeBSD.org

End users often want to know what version of FreeBSD they are running. But
understanding what version is being used is quite hard once you=E2=80=99ve =
used
freebsd-update, as the documentation and tooling is inconsistent and/or has
gaps:

 - The uname(1) man page represents that the =E2=80=9C-r=E2=80=9D argument =
will "Write the
current release level of the operating system to standard output.=E2=80=9D.=
  However,
that is actually the value of the OS version returned by kern.osrelease, wh=
ich
may not be the version you have installed via freebsd-update.

- The freebsd-version(1) command will tell you the version you have install=
ed.
But it is not cross-referenced from uname(1), even thought freebsd-version(=
1)
cross references uname(1).

- The freebsd-update(8) command has no way to print the current version --
e.g., =E2=80=9Cstatus=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cversion=E2=80=9D that I can find=
, and it would be the most obvious
place to look to find out the installed version. It cross references neither
uname(1) nor freebsd-version(1).

Obviously, the notion of =E2=80=9Cversion=E2=80=9D is complex, but some eff=
ort has been gone to
to neatly hide the complexity of that idea in the freebsd-version(1) comman=
d.
It seems like it would be good to:

1. Make sure freebsd-version(1) is well cross referenced from other tools t=
hat
relate to OS version (e.g., uname(1), freebsd-update(8)).

2. To make that version information easy to get via update management tools,
such as freebsd-update(8), which might ideally wrap freebsd-version(1) to
provide a =E2=80=9Cversion=E2=80=9D or =E2=80=9Cstatus=E2=80=9D mode.

3. To slightly clarify in uname(1) that =E2=80=9C-r=E2=80=9D is not exactly=
 the =E2=80=9Ccurrent
release level=E2=80=9D as most users would imagine such a term to mean.

--=20
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