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Date: Sun, 16 Sep 2012 13:11:23 +0200
From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To: Robert Bonomi <bonomi@mail.r-bonomi.com>
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Subject: Re: 8.1 -> 8.3
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On Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:32:42 -0500 (CDT), Robert Bonomi wrote:
> > From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org  Sat Sep 15 11:58:42 2012
> > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> > From: Michael Powell <nightrecon@hotmail.com>
> > Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:56:49 -0400
> > Subject: Re: 8.1 -> 8.3
> >
> > Laszlo Danielisz wrote:
> >
> > > Hey Guys,
> > > 
> > > If I want to upgrade from 8.1-RELEASE-p11 to 8.3 do I need to also update
> > > installed packages? One more thing: by when has 8.3 release maintenance?
> > > Maybe I'm blind but I haven't found the date on freebsd.org
> > > 
> >
> > When updating within a major release version such as 8.1 to 8.x the ABI is 
> > stable and remains the same so it is not necessary to update the third party 
> > packages/ports. 
> 
> Note: this is _generally_ accurate.   There are *rare* exceptions -- things
> that have to be compiled against against the actual kernel in use, because
> they go rummaging through kernel internal data structures.
> 
> Historically, lsof wa one such program.
> 
> Such programs tended to have *LOUD* caveats in the build documentation,
> and run-time checks for kernel version consistency. 
> 
> In 30+ years as a sysadmin, I think I've only encoundered abouut _four_
> such programs. 

There may be one addition: Sometimes, programs originating
from ports become part of the OS (the base system). If I
remember correctly, that happened in the 7.x branch with
xz (becoming /usr/bin/xz). In such cases, it's good to
revier the related ports.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...