From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Apr 17 09:49:14 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EF1FE16A402 for ; Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:49:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cptsalek@gmail.com) Received: from ik-out-1112.google.com (ik-out-1112.google.com [66.249.90.182]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8414113C487 for ; Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:49:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cptsalek@gmail.com) Received: by ik-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id c21so1969376ika for ; Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:49:13 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=HOMrMVrz63DApGymf67p8KFDYW0nXRVzWiUJksJ/zEeqnYGYPgDl0h1RcJ4ddROCz8+qMPtpwSJ683zBowSuqvkXXU0OeEuVBV8Dc5e1luDOzFYSgaFsEPIC/Syj0PKJV6Hg+UsCjbZ6KNdXs9+fVuUJkarIRvWkfs0BdRQGlhE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=p38rAkNQNOa5h6Rl451UB/RJsNrYlLMpKE7Reqvy3SkgQfV+5XLLuVKI6qKPrC+fmfmJn0xOy0z23oEv6ms8gmEJodE55yDatxL3FGHv+UJl1pSCd34OOp49Z41jubU9QPCPdjRk53clwtpEFuJWjTYGSWJU3VUmkcKoFVCO5X8= Received: by 10.82.167.5 with SMTP id p5mr9919194bue.1176803353175; Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:49:13 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.82.158.7 with HTTP; Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:49:13 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <14989d6e0704170249v486f3ad9vc5c8df53378229ca@mail.gmail.com> Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 11:49:13 +0200 From: "Christian Walther" To: "Chad Perrin" In-Reply-To: <20070417091026.GA17020@demeter.hydra> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <62b856460704170112x7bae258dm5aede163b203a85b@mail.gmail.com> <20070417091026.GA17020@demeter.hydra> Cc: FreeBSD Questions , Michael Grant Subject: Re: keeping all things up to date X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 09:49:15 -0000 On 17/04/07, Chad Perrin wrote: > On Tue, Apr 17, 2007 at 10:12:31AM +0200, Michael Grant wrote: > > Is there some sort of automated way to keep freebsd and all the > > installed ports/packages up to date automatically? > > > > I don't mean just the source, that part is easy. I mean something > > that actually reinstalls the things ad needed, sort of like windows > > update or the updater on ubuntu. > > Have you used MS Windows much -- enough to notice that often a patch can > break something? Now imagine that Windows Update also has to handle a > bunch of third-party applications. Imagine that "a bunch" is roughly > equal to 15,000. Realize that, without direct control over the > development of all those additional applications, the chance of a patch > to any one of them causing more problems than it fixes is increased. > > Of course, FreeBSD is managed in a much more sane fashion, but the > increased chance of problems does exist in such circumstances. There > are ways to try to minimize that, however. The one FreeBSD seems to > take, as a project, is to do the very best job possible fixing every > potential problem that comes up in a reasonable amount of time, and > telling us about the things that can't just be magically "fixed" that > quickly in the /usr/ports/UPDATING file. > [...] Just as an example that just came up recently: gettext was updated in the ports tree, which required a rebuild of all ports that depend on it. I missed reading /usr/ports/UPDATING before, so I didn't notice this fact. I did an update on my girlfriends laptop which resulted in several applications not being usable anymore. Imagine my face as I had to explain to her why she was unable to use her machine for one and a half day. Another lesson learned... That's why I agree to Chad: Doing automatic updates isn't advisable. They might even come at the wrong time, e.g. when you need your system resources. I'm thinking about monsters like OpenOffice, GNOME or KDE.