From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 11 20:09:55 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 288301065693 for ; Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A72708FC2B for ; Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@m.gmane.org) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1M3bot-0000Tl-QS for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:51 +0000 Received: from pool-71-166-134-16.washdc.east.verizon.net ([71.166.134.16]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:51 +0000 Received: from nightrecon by pool-71-166-134-16.washdc.east.verizon.net with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:51 +0000 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Michael Powell Followup-To: gmane.os.freebsd.questions Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 16:11:08 -0400 Lines: 48 Message-ID: References: <4A07E966.60503@unsane.co.uk> <200905112334.03387.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7Bit X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: pool-71-166-134-16.washdc.east.verizon.net User-Agent: KNode/0.99.01 Sender: news Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: howto sidestep sysinstall during installation X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: nightrecon@verizon.net List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:55 -0000 Saifi Khan wrote: > On Mon, 11 May 2009, Daniel O'Connor wrote: > >> > >> > Putting out a monthly snapshot is nice and if the people are >> > going to not find info about 'Fixit#' and commands in the >> > legendary handbook, that is not very helpful. >> >> FreeBSD doesn't work this way, you are trying to fit FreeBSD into your >> Gentoo way of thinking. Obviously this causes pain, please stop. >> > > i'll be highly obliged, if you could share some nuggets of > wisdom on 'the FreeBSD way' ! Please. > > Don't know about 'wisdom', per se, from me... But consider this: FreeBSD software development is a tree with 3 main branches from the trunk. They are -Release, -Stable, and -Current (aka HEAD). -Release is what a newcomer should use, or if used in a production environment. The -Release branch does receive ongoing maintenance in the form of security updates. -Stable is where newer software from -Current (HEAD) is merged backwards. An example would be a driver bug that was fixed in 8.0-Current would be made available in 7.2-Stable. The main purpose for using -Stable is for when some specific problem you are having in 7.2-Release has been fixed, and updating from -Release to -Stable is how you go about obtaining the fix. -Current (aka HEAD) is the place where active development on the next version takes place. For example, the code that is in -Current today will eventually be FreeBSD-8. You would run this if you were an active developer knowing full well that it could have deficiencies at any given time. The work is fluid and is known to break, with the idea that only programmers who can assist in fixing what breaks should be using it. A Snapshot is a frozen in time snapshot of -Current. Therefore, it is not what a newcomer or regular user should be using. The -Release install can always be updated to -Stable or -Current at a later time should it be necessary. -Mike