From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 11 18:07:48 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org 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 3915416A4A7 for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:07:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: from igloo.linux.gr (igloo.linux.gr [62.1.205.36]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 601E943E69 for ; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:05:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: from gothmog.pc (host5.bedc.ondsl.gr [62.103.39.229]) (authenticated bits=128) by igloo.linux.gr (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-2) with ESMTP id k9BI5Rj3024468 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:05:31 +0300 Received: from gothmog.pc (gothmog [127.0.0.1]) by gothmog.pc (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id k9BI64FN064323; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:06:04 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Received: (from giorgos@localhost) by gothmog.pc (8.13.8/8.13.8/Submit) id k9BI64jH064322; Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:06:04 +0300 (EEST) (envelope-from keramida@freebsd.org) Date: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 21:06:04 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: cothrige Message-ID: <20061011180604.GB63794@gothmog.pc> References: <20061011031055.GA81430@celephais.home.net> <452C766B.3090104@u.washington.edu> <20061011062024.GA3510@celephais.launchmodem.com> <452CBD28.40201@netscape.net> <20061011134556.GA3304@celephais.launchmodem.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20061011134556.GA3304@celephais.launchmodem.com> X-Hellug-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-Hellug-MailScanner-SpamCheck: not spam, SpamAssassin (score=-2.686, required 5, AWL -0.29, BAYES_00 -2.60, DNS_FROM_RFC_ABUSE 0.20, UNPARSEABLE_RELAY 0.00) X-Hellug-MailScanner-From: keramida@freebsd.org X-Spam-Status: No Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Getting started with FreeBSD 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: Wed, 11 Oct 2006 18:07:48 -0000 On 2006-10-11 08:45, cothrige wrote: > > * Tore Lund (toreld@netscape.net) wrote: > > > > I wondered about the same thing some time ago. I was told by one of the > > gurus to try packages-6-stable, which would most likely work with > > 6.1-RELEASE. So I tried to fetch the latest Firefox in this way: > > > > pkg_add [no line break] > > ftp://ftp..freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/packages-6-stable/www/firefox-1.5.0.7,1.tbz > > Doesn't this seem a tad clunky and unfinished? I am still having a > bit of trouble figuring out what I am overlooking. Why would a fully > binary installed OS offer no binary support for updates at all? Oh but we do. Just have a look at "freebsd-update", "portsnap" and "portupgrade": http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update/ http://www.daemonology.net/portsnap/ http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/sysutils/portupgrade/ > Why have a nice secure RELEASE edition when once installed it will > naturally develop security holes that are very hard to find and fix? Because in FreeBSD we don't install a system that fires up the kitchen sink, the hairdresser and a few local classical orchestras, when it starts. You know the feeling... I mean, after all, you are a _Slackware_ user, right? :) Security updates can be fetched pretty fast with `freebsd-update' and they don't always affect you. So, if there's no need to upgrade to the latest and greatest release of all the other things, why do it for your base system? > One of the things I don't get is the stable vs. release concept. > There is basically nothing said to address this. Heh! You areally _are_ a new FreeBSD user, after all. This is, typically, the first question one asks after the first "Oh! Ah! Wow! You mean it does... Awesome!" parts: ``What is "STABLE", "CURRENT" and what do I do with them?'' The answer is in the Handbook ( here: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html ) > I can imagine that the packages in packages-6.1-release are fixed and > static, though it surprises me that no security fixes are placed > there, but what about packages-6-stable? These seem quite new, > comparitively, and so I would assume that they are not static as > release are. And if they are in fact tracked and improved, how can > they be accessed via the tools? Try reading the manpages of the pkg_xxx tools: % man pkg_add % pkg_check % pkg_create % pkg_delete % pkg_info % pkg_sign % pkg_version In FreeBSD, the manpages are _really_ informative and we try to keep them up to date. Learn to search through them, with apropos(1), to read them carefully and you'll find a huge wealth of information. No Linux distrubition has *EVER* convinced me that they value their manpage documentation as much as the FreeBSD people do. - Giorgos