From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 21 11:36:57 2004 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 599E716A4CE for ; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 11:36:57 +0000 (GMT) Received: from sccimhc92.asp.att.net (sccimhc92.asp.att.net [63.240.76.166]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08ECF43D54 for ; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 11:36:57 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@nbritton.org) Received: from nbritton.org (12-223-129-46.client.insightbb.com[12.223.129.46]) by sccimhc92.asp.att.net (sccimhc92) with SMTP id <20041021113656i9200hhhtje>; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 11:36:56 +0000 Message-ID: <41779F57.4070609@nbritton.org> Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 06:36:55 -0500 From: Nikolas Britton User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Oliver Fuchs References: <20041021100713.GA2653@oliverfuchs.onlinehome.de> In-Reply-To: <20041021100713.GA2653@oliverfuchs.onlinehome.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD STABLE, CURRENT and upgrading 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: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 11:36:57 -0000 Oliver Fuchs wrote: >Hi All, > >I am using FreeBSD since 5.2 RELEASE and I am now running 5.2.1 RELEASE. >I upgraded between the two versions from scratch that means I backuped >the main configuration files and directories (like home), deleted the >old version, installed the new one and reconfigured the whole system. > >As I see 5.3 is now coming up so I want to avoid this procedure. >I have read the handbook, the FAQs and Greg Lehey's book 'The complete >FreeBSD'.But I am still quite unsure/confused about some aspects of FreeBSD >philosophy. > >1) CURRENT and STABLE > >As I read in the FAQS there are two main development branches: STABLE >and CURRENT. At the moment the 4-STABLE is the STABLE-branch and the >5-CURRENT is the current brunch up to the point where it gets STABLE (I >think it is 5.3). Then the CURRENT branch will change to 6? >Is that right. > Right... as of a few days ago 5-CURRENT is now 5-STABLE, CURRENT (HEAD) is now 6. > >Then FreeBSD would have two STABLE branches (4 and 5) so what will then >be the difference between them? Or will the 4 branch be ended? >So I am not quiet sure about this terminology. > The difference? a whole lot of stuff. Eventually 4.x will be "phased out" in favor of 5.x but we have awial before this happens. > >2) Updating 5.2.1 >As far as I understood there are three parts of the system that have to >be upgraded: > >kernel >userland >ports > >So to do the first two ones I am going to use sysinstall (I use a slow >internet connection so I have to by the CDs with binary collection). >After userland and kernel have been upgraded I need to upgrade my >prts/packages. >Therefore I copy my binary packages (from the CDs) to >/usr/ports/packages/All and first run >portversion >and then >portupgrade -P > >Is this all for now? > >3) Get the latest security patches/packages >On the FreeBSD security page I have read about three >security patches for the 5.2.1 RELAESE. They only affected the kernel. >Running freebsd-update gave me a lot more security hints but for the >packages. >So am I right believing that the security patches only regard kernel >and to get the latest package-updates I have to run freebsd-update? >Or is there another possibility? > >Thanx for your patience and help in advance > >Oliver > >