Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:28:16 -0400 From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@msu.edu> To: Chris Stankevitz <cstankevitz@toyon.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Packages available for different FreeBSD versions Message-ID: <20090817232816.GA69468@gizmo.acns.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <4A89CA18.7000506@toyon.com> References: <4A89BD3E.8020804@toyon.com> <d356c5630908171342m4c8469dcw6a64c5d2a5990457@mail.gmail.com> <4A89CA18.7000506@toyon.com>
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On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 02:22:32PM -0700, Chris Stankevitz wrote: > Andrew Gould wrote: > >Once you're installed a RELEASE, you can update it to STABLE by > > Andrew, > > Thank you for your helpful reply. Please tell me if you think I have > the correct understanding: > > When I install FreeBSD, I am installing a "core operating system version > number" (your term). Then I may choose to install the "ports" as either > "STABLE" or "CURRENT" neither of which is associated with any "core > operating system version number". From this point on, all application > updates will arrive via "ports" . You don't have this quite right. The only thing that is versioned and called RELEASE, STABLE or CURRENT with Installation ISO-s for installation is the base OS. You can choose to install any version of the OS that you can get the files for - preferably in an ISO. But, you really want to install the latest RELEASE. The ports are applications. A bunch of them are thrown in with the ISOs because they are so commonly used. But, they are separate from the base OS. Generally a port consists of the source code and a set of procedures for building (configuring, compiling, linking, installing and runtime configuring) the source code in to a running application. The ports are not tied directly to an OS version, Each port is developed 'independantly' from the OS and has its own version designation. But often there are things that they depend on in the OS that may change over different versions. So a given version of a port may only be buildable for a certain range of OS versions - or, more often, the libraries that are part of the OS. Many ports are utilities that run under several different operating systems. The developers(maintainers) have just created the small variations in code and build procedures to make it run on each OS and each OS version. Some maintainers or other developers take a port and build it on and for a specific version of the OS (a RELEASE of the OS). They bundle it into a nice file or set of files that can be copied to your system and applied with little extra work. The compiling, linking and even some of the configuring are all done for you - generally presuming the most commonly used settings. These are called packages and these generally are good for only one version of one OS each. There may be a number of packages available for a port built for different versions of the OS. OpenOffice is a good example. It can be installed from a port - completely built from the source and makefiles. I have done it successfully several times. But it is a very big port and very cumbersom and time consuming to build that way. So probably most people just get the prebuilt package and install that. > > A question: > > Imaging one person installs FreeBSD-6.4 RELEASE and updates to STABLE > ports. Another installs FreeBSD-7.2 RELEASE and also updates to STABLE > ports. Are there any applications that the FreeBSD-6.4 person cannot > install (e.g. the latest apache or VirtualBox)? If so, by what > mechanism is he prevented? What are the repercussions of never updating > the "core operating system version number"? Your first sentence here already is off track. You would not update to STABLE ports. Ports are what they are. You might update the base OS to STABLE. There may (and probably are) some ports that run on 7.2 RELEASE that will not run on an earlier (6.4 version of the OS. That is because the libraries will have been modified and the ports are always built for the latest OS version. The exception is if you download the ISO set for a particular OS version, burn them on CDs and install the port from the CDs. Of course, these CDs will not change. But the next set of ISOs you download for a later OS version will be upgraded to go with that OS version. > > FYI my experience is with Gentoo which as no "core operating system > version number". All system updates come from "portage" (like your ports). Yup. Different concept. Lately I am having to muck with some Linux stuff and after dealing with FreeBSD for 11 years or so, find the Lunix to be very clunky. > > > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/ > > > > They are arranged by computer architecture and release number. There > > are also stable directories for certain releases. Pretty much any computer architecture that FreeBSD supports will have the same OS version available. You do have to distinguish between Intel/AMD 32 and 64 bit and Sparc and DEC and some of those. But once you get the right ISO, the rest falls in place. > > Thank you for providing this. It raises two questions: > > 1. If the STABLE ports tree is not associated with a "core operating > system version number", why are there two directories for STABLE packages: > > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-6-stable/ > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7-stable/ > > 2. What is the difference between these two? > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7.2-release/ > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7-stable/ Note that these are packages, instead of ports. See discussion above. ////jerry > > My guess: > The first is the packages that were made available in the 7.2 RELEASE CDs. > > The second is a directory that is re-created every 5 minutes by updating > the ports collection and compiling all the applications in it. > > Thank you for your help! > > Chris > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
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