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Date:      Sat, 21 Mar 1998 09:30:52 +1100 (EST)
From:      "Daniel O'Callaghan" <danny@panda.hilink.com.au>
To:        Ted Spradley <tsprad@set.spradley.tmi.net>
Cc:        Drew Derbyshire - UUPC/extended software support <software@kew.com>, stable@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: after the release ... 
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.91.980321091629.300C-100000@panda.hilink.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <E0yG5WL-0001KR-00@set.spradley.tmi.net>

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Drew, Ted, 

On Fri, 20 Mar 1998, Ted Spradley wrote:

> I presume you mean a *binary* patch here.  What's the big advantage of
> binary over source?  You don't have to pay extra for the compiler.  I
> suppose the binary patch would run faster, but the computer does the work,
> not you, so why do you care?  The source patch is more likely to get it
> right, and if it doesn't, you've got a tiny chance to fix it. > > > > To

Not everyone installs sources.  Many of my customers have brain seizures 
if I send them step-by-step instructions on how to apply a patch and type 
'make ; make install'.

I found it easier to create a pkg and tell them to do

pkg_add ftp://ftp.hilink.com.au/pub/FreeBSD/sendmail-security-pkg.tgz
(sample URL)

They were quite happy with the above.

As Mike stated, you just need a before and after system where you can 
compare binaries, then you tar up the binaries from the 'after' system 
and put them in a package.  This allows people who are afraid of 'make' 
to upgrade.

There should be a bit of discussion about when to release an upgrade 
package, and whether they should be incremental, or complete from the 
-RELEASE.  My vote is for incremental, and at least a week apart, unless 
there are security holes found.  Monthly would probably be acceptable.

So, Drew, the two approaches to take are:
* install CVS so you can extract the differences you want (Eivind has nice 
patches to CVS to allow this).
* Regularly fetch a SNAP/BETA snapshot from 
releng22.freebsd.org:/pub/FreeBSD ; unpack it ; compare it with the last 
one ; create a directory tree with the changed files ; use pkg_create

Your new P166 will be up to this job admirably.  I just hope you got a 
decent HDD :-)

If you want a hand with this, I am happy to help.

Danny

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