From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 13 15:05:27 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 31FC116A4CE for ; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:05:27 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net (mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net [69.17.117.25]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A7A5743D31 for ; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:05:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org) Received: (qmail 23821 invoked from network); 13 Feb 2005 15:05:26 -0000 Received: from dsl092-078-145.bos1.dsl.speakeasy.net (HELO be-well.ilk.org) ([66.92.78.145]) (envelope-sender ) by mail23.sea5.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 13 Feb 2005 15:05:26 -0000 Received: by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix, from userid 1147) id 9C29B16A; Sun, 13 Feb 2005 10:05:25 -0500 (EST) Sender: lowell@be-well.ilk.org To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Matt Rechkemmer References: <20050208085748.GA13424@sdf.lonestar.org> <44acqfcdqk.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> <20050211072027.GA29449@sdf.lonestar.org> <200502120920.52803.no-spam@swiftdsl.com.au> From: Lowell Gilbert Date: 13 Feb 2005 10:05:25 -0500 In-Reply-To: <200502120920.52803.no-spam@swiftdsl.com.au> Message-ID: <44d5v44i16.fsf@be-well.ilk.org> Lines: 32 User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.3 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Subject: Re: Dumb question about ports/packages X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:05:27 -0000 Ian Moore writes: > On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:50, Matt Rechkemmer wrote: > > Final question :-), is there anyway to determine if a base package is out > > of date? Or is just wise to leave the base alone and upgrade when a new > > release comes along. > > You should at least update your system when security vulnerabilities occur in > the base system. To minimise upgrades, follow the security branch for your > release - this only has security fixes, not new features. See the handbook > for details. Subscribe to the Security Notifications list to get notification > of base system vunerabilities. The current policy for the release branches is that they are not "security" branches, they are "errata" branches. The practical upshot of this is that some particularly serious non-security problems do get fixed on them. To follow up a bit farther on the original poster's question: if you don't know about a new version of software in the base system, and you're not having problems with it, you don't need to update. This doesn't apply to security problems, of course, which is why following the security advisories is essential. FreeBSD is designed to work well as an entire OS, so very few people need to update the base system piecemeal. [This is why FreeBSD is very conservative about adding anything new to the base system.] Be well.. -- Lowell Gilbert, embedded/networking software engineer, Boston area http://be-well.ilk.org/~lowell/