From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 14 11:43:15 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 24E0416A403 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:43:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4BFB743D45 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:43:13 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (vuhupc@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k8EBh7nn043026 for ; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:43:12 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id k8EBh7Tg043025; Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:43:07 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:43:07 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: <200609141143.k8EBh7Tg043025@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <20060914012316.V1031@ganymede.hub.org> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-stable User-Agent: tin/1.8.0-20051224 ("Ronay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-STABLE (i386)) X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:43:12 +0200 (CEST) Cc: Subject: Re: ARRRRGH! Guys, who's breaking -STABLE's GMIRROR code?! X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 11:43:15 -0000 Marc G. Fournier wrote: > Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote: > > Greg Barniskis wrote: > > > > > If you /track/ STABLE by frequently cvsupping it and rebuilding your > > > system, you will very likely encounter a serious problem sooner or > > > later. That's why tracking it is not recommended for production > > > systems. > > > > I did exactly that all the way from 2.0 to 4.11 on various machines > > without ever having any trouble. > > Ditto ... in fact, I do that on my desktop and have yet to hit a problem > ... -STABLE *is* generally very stable ... Same here. However, if you want (or need) to track stable, there are certain possibilities to avoid trouble. Of course watching the -stable mailing list (and possibly even -cvs-all) and reading /usr/src/UPDATING should be a "must". But there are more things that can be done. On important production machines, it might be a good idea to track -stable with some delay. For example, always update to the -stable date of 4 weeks ago (using the -D option of cvs, or the "date=" keyword of cvsup), after making sure that no critical problems have been reported in the mailing list in the past 4 weeks. Chances are that critical bugs are detected and fixed pretty quickly in the -stable branch. And of course: Always make sure that you have good backups. But that's even true if you don't track -stable. Best regards Oliver PS: Some people think that a RAID1 (mirror) is a substitute for a backup. It's not. -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing Dienstleistungen mit Schwerpunkt FreeBSD: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd Any opinions expressed in this message may be personal to the author and may not necessarily reflect the opinions of secnetix in any way. "A language that doesn't have everything is actually easier to program in than some that do." -- Dennis M. Ritchie