Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2015 00:40:52 -0500 From: Chris Nehren <cnehren+freebsd-stable@pobox.com> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: system updates question Message-ID: <20150203054052.GA39842@behemoth.lan> In-Reply-To: <40846D33-F521-4DEE-8020-2C6B4F1E10AD@chamberlain.io> References: <40846D33-F521-4DEE-8020-2C6B4F1E10AD@chamberlain.io>
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--nFreZHaLTZJo0R7j Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 04:15:18 +0000, Cody Chamberlain wrote: > freebsd friends, Hi Cody. > im a relatively new convert from debian linux and am starting to > love freebsd more and more. the one thing i am in need of some > advice is: what is the difference / best usage of freebsd-update > and pkg to stay up to date? Your question indicates that you have a misunderstanding of how FreeBSD works, due to the fact that there are some concepts in FreeBSD that do not have analogues in Linux. Principle among these is the base system: the set of software that the FreeBSD Project develops and provides with the install media that you get whenever you install the system. The base system includes everything the OS needs to build itself and the base of the ports system (with a few extra things added, though that list is thankfully shrinking as time goes on), and that's about it. This is different from the Linux world, where everything is just another package. Your kernel, your text editor, your X server: each one is just another package with no special treatment. There are some safeguards around removing and upgrading certain packages (like the package manager) to prevent foot shooting, but that is the extent to which things are treated specially in Linux. freebsd-update updates the base system. This will generally be security fixes and errata for core system functionality and you'll definitely want to install these updates. pkg will update the third party applications, like your X server and your web server. You'll want to follow these updates as well, of course, but they are not as fundamental as your kernel. > from my debian world i am coming from, after running apt-get update > i had categories of updates grouped by =E2=80=9Csecurity=E2=80=9D and =E2= =80=9Cupgrades=E2=80=9D - > there was also a distribution upgrade that was available=E2=80=A6. As said above, there is no distinction between security updates and errata for the freebsd-updates tool (nor, indeed, for the ports tree). Generally, one will want to stay as up to date as possible, for a variety of reasons, so there isn't really a technical reason for drawing a distinction (people like to draw arbitrary political distinctions, but that always causes tech debt and other problems IME). > is running pkg update and pkg upgrade equivalent to debian=E2=80=99s apt-= get > update / install? This question betrays the misunderstanding that I described above. Insofar as (almost) everything in Debian is a third-party package, yes, pkg upgrade will do the equivalent of apt-get upgrade. However, there are parts of the system that are required for basic functionality which apt-get will also upgrade. For these packages on FreeBSD, you'll want the freebsd-update tool. > what does freebsd-update update? is there a delineation between > just security updates and upgrades? freebsd-update will work with the base system--those parts of the OS developed, maintained, and released by the FreeBSD Project. There is no delineation between security updates and errata. The errata are quite conservative, especially if you are on a RELEASE branch. I would suggest you read the FreeBSD Handbook to further understand these distinctions, and look at http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/01 as well, especially the sections for the base system and the ports tree. --=20 Chris Nehren --nFreZHaLTZJo0R7j Content-Type: application/pgp-signature -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2 iQJbBAABCABFBQJU0F9ePhSAAAAAABUAIHBrYS1hZGRyZXNzQGdudXBnLm9yZ2Nu ZWhyZW4rZnJlZWJzZC1zdGFibGVAcG9ib3guY29tAAoJEBHA+GJAM0vPn6UP/R6u LIA+8KB8s20PZjVep+KbYiBZUDcCqKh1egQTZwqqNXw86UsSkSkvBJlAGqkdrGbz IaX++5Eq7vp0G3QOlNxh/SREnxcdparKVruCT4MFvtymF4XCKlof49TQRpTi4ils gxhB0p17WyPhviY+5nZz69PCKsDnR8uck/3dt38J0shahpVMCStab8c5HPRKoECa 20NmLUacbJs6a6lZRXjkmVjA2umSI8sENVjDP9vP0R1HEV2Iqy4nAdYSJ/fkZz4H O7123fIWU6U+/0LrhonhSxjWREOhddCPrq+VQrjevbWX+3ysAVYiwymSCh3+ruH8 UcJEic2D4uIQ2PwtlswspAw2n309Wkfu6f8C8JdXoN39TWJiZ4T4wEvcxg28lEEg wEOs6g8JdjRIRMntwWT0Bb+L8rj/XpIWqUiU3+LqDZn5PT8kLpEdMCgkFFR0wTcf Abues0pDw8sVuvkSm7tFFwflZjAe/Zs00XcZpOa3XIMA05OcBTjDkVFneVDhxslt B43kZM5XpGuVcssD2W8YsWpc/gSejYqWROKs77Y2cAzgaZCYjQabklPcIehJQdm2 2ik8OkASE+q6fyLNZQupCoJrQiay61sH2KyVce0qH58jc0qmaML5mdBD3ETckaKO gvunHD/soZ8j5K57lp3uTEsVrFp/yYcBw5In4XvJ =U7EG -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nFreZHaLTZJo0R7j--
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