Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 20:34:20 -0500 From: John Nielsen <lists@jnielsen.net> To: Neal Konneker <ntkonn@yahoo.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: version 6! Message-ID: <200512132034.20397.lists@jnielsen.net> In-Reply-To: <20051214000012.55093.qmail@web52301.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20051214000012.55093.qmail@web52301.mail.yahoo.com>
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After realizing how long I made this little explanation, I decided it might be helpful to someone if I made it available on the freebsd-questions mailing list. List: take the following for what it's worth. On Tuesday 13 December 2005 07:00 pm, ntkonn wrote: > Crap amighty, I just upgraded FreeBSD. When did they > go to 6? Yes, 6. You might want to consider subscribing to the freebsd-announce mailing list (http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-announce). Also, the release of FreeBSD 6.0 does not mean you are running an outdated version of FreeBSD (yet). The 5.x branch is basically in "maintenance" mode, but a 5.5 release is planned. I doubt that 5.x will be retired before 6.1 has been out for a while. > Are you running 6? Anything in it make it > worth the trouble to upgrade? Should I upgrade just > so I don't get too far behind? FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE breaks the mold for a "dot nought" release in that it is both relatively painless to upgrade and quite stable to run. Take a look at http://www.freebsd.org/releases/, and pay particular attention to the announcement and release notes for 6.0. As for reasons to upgrade, you can determine that yourself from the release notes, etc., but in my view there's no good reason not to. Not lagging behind is also a good way to go in general. The best (read: non-adventurous) way to do that is to follow releases, or possibly by tracking -STABLE. (Releases are merely extra-well-tested, nicely packaged snapshots of the -STABLE branch of development.) (If you're curious, the "adventurous" way to stay current is to track -CURRENT. All new (and possibly untested) development happens in -CURRENT, and is backported to -STABLE only if it doesn't break compatibility and after it has been tested for a set period of time.) See also http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html (and the rest of chapter 20 of the handbook). As I alluded to in my prior e-mail, I am running 6-STABLE both at home and at work with no problems. 6.0-RELEASE is also a good modern-but-not-scary candidate. > uname -a produces: > > FreeBSD asus.konneker 5.4-STABLE FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE > #0: Wed Nov 2 19:13:15 EST 2005 > neal@asus.konneker:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 That means you're running 5-STABLE from a little over a month ago. The gap between 5 and 6 is pretty narrow at this point, but it will probably widen with time (little if any new development is making its way into 5, since 6 is now "stable"). You can do one of four things (actually 5, but the 5th is not recommended): 1) Not upgrade your system. Not recommended for long-term use, but not necessarily a bad thing at any given time. Plan on doing one of the other options, but use this one until it's convenient to upgrade. 2) Continue tracking 5-STABLE. You could update your sources to the latest in the 5.x branch, using cvsup and a src supfile with the RELENG_5 tag. Rebuilding your "world" and kernel at that point would give you a 5-STABLE with today's date. This option is better than (1) above, since it will incorporate security and other critical fixes, but still doesn't get you very far in terms of new functionality or staying up-to-date. This option could also be a useful stepping-stone prior to upgrading to 6, but since your current system is very close to this already it's not strictly necessary. If you wait a while to upgrade to 6, then you will definitely want to upgrade to the most current 5-STABLE beforehand. 3) Upgrade to 6.0-RELEASE. This is most easily done by changing the tag in your src supfile to RELENG_6_0, updating your sources, and rebuilding world and kernel. You will likely also need to rebuild/reinstall most or all of your ports to reflect new versions of the system libraries (this step is only typical of upgrades across major release numbers (like 5 to 6) and is not necessary for minor release upgrades (like 6.0 to 6.1). This is a strong option, since it gives you a well-tested release and keeps you from needing to do a major version upgrade for the entire lifecycle of FreeBSD 6.x. Even if you go with (4) below, you should do this first. 4) Upgrade to 6-STABLE. To do this you would change the tag in your src supfile to RELENG_6. The main advantage of this option is that you can do many incremental updates. This allows you to get new features without waiting for the next release, and also lets you deal with potential bumps in the upgrade path in smaller doses. There is the added risk (compared to (3) of encountering bugs or other hurdles that might not show up in a release, but in my experience that risk is minimal. 5) (Listed for completeness only. Typically only experienced (and/or brave/benevolent/eager, etc.) users wishing to be actively engaged in the development and testing process should do this.) Upgrade to 7-CURRENT. You would do this by changing the tag in your src supfile to "." (just a period, without the quotes), and rebuilding your kernel and world. For best results, upgrade to the latest -STABLE (as in (4) first. This option gives you the latest bleeding-edge version of FreeBSD, and also (by default, at least) adds a number of debugging features to the kernel and other parts of the system. So while technically you can get new features this way before they make it into -STABLE, you also run a much higher risk of encountering bugs. Additionally, the debugging options have a significant negative impact on system performance. IN ALL CASES, you should review /usr/src/UPDATING after updating your sources but before installing the new system. Caveats and changes requiring your attention will appear in this file. JN
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