Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 09:08:59 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: "freebsd@tcowen.com" <freebsd@tcowen.com> Cc: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: updating Message-ID: <20020812080859.GC7021@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <3D574F20.31877706@tcowen.com> References: <3D55C02D.5C2A5B26@tcowen.com> <20020811122025.GA2952@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> <3D574F20.31877706@tcowen.com>
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On Mon, Aug 12, 2002 at 02:01:04AM -0400, freebsd@tcowen.com wrote:
> now that I have all the stable sources and have updated all the ports
> and docs, to update the system I assume I can follow section 19.4 of the
> handbook. but what about updating things I have previously installed?
> for example I have ipfilter installed. and say I am trying to update a
> system that things were installed on by other people, how will I know
> which programs are installed and need to be reinstalled? and at what
> point along the process should they be reinstalled.
In theory, you should be able to follow section 19.4 of the handbook
to rebuild the "world" and jump from 4.1-RELEASE to 4.6-STABLE without
affecting 3rd party packages elsewhere on the system. `ipfilter' is
included in the system sources, so it would be updated by that
procedure.
Unfortunately, that is just the theory: real life has an annoying
tendency not to go according to plan. Short of building a second
system on equivalent hardware and updating it off-line there's no way
to do this job without risk of disruption to your users. The first
lesson, and the last, in SysAdmin is "don't do anything that you can't
undo". Which in this case, boils down to keeping good backups and
being prepared to restore any changes to get back to a usable system
if you can't fix things any other way.
As for the other software packages installed on the system: if they
have been installed via ports, then portupgrade(1) is your friend.
Special care should be taken if you're going to be upgrading XFree86
from version 3.x to the current 4.2.0 --- the presence of certain
programs from the XFree86 3.x packages (particularly imake) on the
system can cause wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Software that has been installed outside the ports system is a
trickier proposition. If it does what you want, and there aren't any
nasty security holes due to that version, then there isn't really any
good reason to update it.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
Savill Way
Tel: +44 1628 476614 Marlow
Fax: +44 0870 0522645 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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