From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Oct 20 20:23:56 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F34D16A4B3 for ; Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:23:56 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cardinal.mail.pas.earthlink.net (cardinal.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.121.226]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F4DE43FAF for ; Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:23:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rperry4@earthlink.net) Received: from dialup-171.75.71.21.dial1.weehawken.level3.net ([171.75.71.21] helo=earthlink.net) by cardinal.mail.pas.earthlink.net with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1ABn7c-0000SU-00; Mon, 20 Oct 2003 20:23:49 -0700 Message-ID: <3F94A773.9080104@earthlink.net> Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2003 23:26:43 -0400 From: "Robert H. Perry" User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.4.1) Gecko/20031018 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Sergey 'DoubleF' Zaharchenko References: <3F91D517.7040100@earthlink.net> <20031020134258.4f4f0efd.doublef@tele-kom.ru> In-Reply-To: <20031020134258.4f4f0efd.doublef@tele-kom.ru> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: FreeBSD-Questions Subject: Re: Upgrade to 4.8 RELEASE X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 03:23:56 -0000 >>Hello, >> >>I'm making plans to upgrade from 4.7 RELEASE to 4.8 RELEASE. My >>previous attempt was a binary upgrade from 4.5 to 4.7 which did not go >>very well. I eventually purchased the 4.7 CD. >> >>The FreeBSD Handbook stresses backing up the system and implies that >>/dump/ is a better backup program. Chapter 12.9.8.1 of the handbook >>recommends having a copy of the boot and fixit floppies available and >>making sure they have all your devices, otherwise you'll need to prepare >>two bootable custom floppies that contain /fdisk, disklabel, newfs, >>mount, /and your backup program. It goes on to say that these programs >>must be statically linked. I understand hard and soft links but I'm not >>familiar with static links. The handbook also provides a script for >>creatinng a bootable floppy. >> >> > >A static link is a firm link:) Seriously, static linking has nothing to >do with filesystem links. A statically linked program just uses no >shared libraries. AFAICT the programs in /stand (and /bin and /sbin) are >statically linked (note that those in /stand are also a "crunchbox", >that is, a single "monolithic" program which runs differently depending >on the name it was run as). You really have to mess with this only if >you are going to write your own program to run from a boot floppy. > >You can use file(1) if you want to see if a program is staticlally linked: > >$ file /usr/bin/find >/usr/bin/find: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (FreeBSD), for FreeBSD 4.8, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), stripped >$ file /stand/find >/stand/find: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 80386, version 1 (FreeBSD), for FreeBSD 4.8, statically linked, stripped > Thanks for the education Sergey. This makes a lot more sense now. I never prepared a boot floppy when I initially installed 4.7 so I thought the handbook was suggesting a necessary alternative (?). If it's not absolutely necessary, I'll skip it. Any suggestions relative to the upgrade process is also appreciated. > >In fact, a source update isn't as dangerous as you expect. > That's what I've heard and I suspect you're right. However, AFAICT, past failures have usually come as a result of not following the handbook. Maybe this floppy is a bit of overkill though. Thanks again. Bob