Date: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 07:13:58 -0700 (PDT) From: jobaldwi@vt.edu To: freebsd-gnats-submit@freebsd.org Subject: docs/12595: [PATCH] New FAQ Entry: "Why shouldn't I just go ahead and run -current?" Message-ID: <19990711141358.B95F514D25@hub.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 12595
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [PATCH] New FAQ Entry: "Why shouldn't I just go ahead and run -current?"
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: medium
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: doc-bug
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Sun Jul 11 07:20:01 PDT 1999
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: John Baldwin
>Release: 3.2-STABLE
>Organization:
>Environment:
n/a
>Description:
A FAQ entry that will discourage people that shouldn't from running
-current.
>How-To-Repeat:
"I just started running -current and now my box freezes!" x 200
>Fix:
Apply this patch to doc/FAQ/hackers.sgml:
Note: I am more familiar with DocBook than with LinuxDoc, so I may
have some of the tags wrong. :(
Index: hackers.sgml
===================================================================
RCS file: /usr/cvs/doc/FAQ/hackers.sgml,v
retrieving revision 1.16
diff -u -r1.16 hackers.sgml
--- hackers.sgml 1999/04/09 15:43:23 1.16
+++ hackers.sgml 1999/07/11 13:54:49
@@ -35,6 +35,96 @@
<sect1>
<heading>
+ Why shouldn't I just go ahead and run -current? That's got
+ all the latest stuff, right?
+ </heading>
+
+ <p>4.0 is the next major release of FreeBSD. For now, and for a
+ while, all -stable releases of FreeBSD will be in the 3.x
+ line. These are minor releases, which do not introduce big
+ changes and we try our best to avoid breaking compatibility
+ backward compatibility (binary, file formats, etc).
+
+ <p>Meanwhile, our fearless developers are cooking the 4.0
+ version. This branch is known as 4.0-current, or just -current
+ (since when 4.0 becomes stable, the current branch will become
+ 5.0-current).
+
+ <p>Our developers are fearless because a -current system is
+ something in development, and, thus, subject to all sort of
+ bugs, which can wipe out your disks, burn your monitor, erase
+ your BIOS, overheat your CPU(s), spit out your PCI cards, send
+ the fans flying (sometimes throwing stuff at them first), make
+ international phone calls to phone sex services, print
+ pornography until your printer runs out of paper/toner (sorry,
+ no such luck... it's just the Stark report), send insulting
+ faxes to your boss, cheat on the mob and blame you for it,
+ attract attention for the gentle I.R.S. personel, blow your
+ house fuses, open the gas and then set your house on fire, make
+ your girlfriend break up with you (or your wife cheat on you),
+ and bomb Yugoslavia. This last one we are trying to debug,
+ though [NOTE: at the time of this writing, we have reports that
+ this bug has been fixed].
+
+ <p>Because of the above, we advise against using -current. If
+ you so insist, the following rules must be obeyed:
+
+ <itemize>
+ <item>Read cvs-all. No, I'm not kidding. I mean it.</item>
+
+ <item>Read freebsd-current. Yeah, that one too.</item>
+
+ <item>If something fails, it's probably because you missed a
+ message on cvs-all or freebsd-current.</item>
+
+ <item>If that's not the case, it's probably a temporary
+ bug. Cvsup again after the appropriate time (minimum of one
+ hour, though one full day is not unreasonable).</item>
+
+ <item>If it still crashes *at the same location*, then it's
+ probably your fault. Junk your customized settings, and try to
+ reproduce it with a vanilla system.</item>
+
+ <item>If you can reproduce it even with a vanilla system, then
+ you might actually have stumbled on a bug. Congratulations!
+ Find out what the bug is, and send us the patches.</item>
+
+ <item>If you are not capable of the above, you might just keep
+ quiet and wait until someone fixes it. See steps 1 and 2 for
+ how do you know someone fixed it.</item>
+
+ <item>On the other hand, you might help track down the
+ bug. See the handbook on getting crash dumps, kernel traces,
+ and such stuff.</item>
+
+ <item>If you loose all data on your hard disks because of a
+ bug, that's one of the risks of running -current. Either you
+ can deal with that, or you shouldn't be running
+ -current.</item>
+ </itemize>
+
+ <p>These rules, though written tongue-in-cheek, are for
+ real. FreeBSD 4.0-current is <bf/not/ supposed to work all the
+ time. It is being <bf/developed/, and saying "Hey! I have a
+ bug!" does <bf/not/ help developers. Furthermore, sometimes it
+ breaks <bf/on purpose/, while things are being changed, and the
+ fixes are <bf/not/ immediate.
+
+ <p>If you can live with that, and think you have any compelling
+ reason to run -current, read the handbook for further
+ instructions.
+
+
+ <p>Sorry if this seems too harsh, but many people are just not
+ used to the concept of a development tree available publicly,
+ and think of it as the "latest version". It is <bf/not/ the latest
+ version. When it is <bf/ready/, it will be the latest
+ version. Until then... read the above.
+
+ <p><em>Contributed by
+ <url url="mailto:dcs@freebsd.org" name="Daniel C. Sobral">.</em>
+
+ <sect1>
+ <heading>
How do I make my own custom release?<label id="custrel">
</heading>
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