From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 7 06:01:25 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6870A16A419 for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2007 06:01:25 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cothrige@gmail.com) Received: from nf-out-0910.google.com (nf-out-0910.google.com [64.233.182.184]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED96613C442 for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2007 06:01:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cothrige@gmail.com) Received: by nf-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id k4so312685nfd for ; Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:01:23 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; bh=FoUBDlBVLp9O7eDqOAsAPpB+FvNs65TEMmtNCHOAXJ4=; b=SLyodh3xfwC3mcg0ONeoSy2AKO6fOTnMTIewJucVwW7bfbA2Pu4GHiT+Rhr9V86fGepxShDouCB9IddWIVps4M4f1p8pwicDDN1wfHFOfsuuVysLdAOsQU0din8bD/LsTILqo6exc6HKCGbKSDmX8H6Bwm6TIAa3WjL0KxT+FyA= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=jdyXKgcLuZZmVHvbYvtoVDYGIyekcSO8y/JLg9AjKlIpGv4COaZycnBT3puEIwzJMdPpHD5GGKSgXNvkSUMAt68CrvAub9chvMC/mLpJAWKhTdDSXTtjW+v0W+Q7DQ8O5nL6NON0q9nUGXtykiOlBtz/nOwGhg2CK0YNaM5B+do= Received: by 10.78.149.15 with SMTP id w15mr585152hud.1189143339157; Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:35:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.75.19 with HTTP; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 22:35:39 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 00:35:39 -0500 From: cothrige To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Newbie questions about updating 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: Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:01:25 -0000 I know this is going to be a very dumb question, but I just can't seem to get my mind around exactly what is involved and what I should do regarding this issue. I understand from reading the handbook that the ports system is completely separate from the OS itself, and that these can be upgraded or updated separately. From what I can see this seems to most often involve CVSup, and I have been operating under the assumption that one must run two cvsup operations with two separate supfiles to update both the core OS and the ports. Am I understanding this correctly? Assuming I am, my main confusion concerns just how these two systems actually interact and relate to each other, and whether there are any requirements connecting updating each of them together? For instance, I have downloaded the FreeBSD 6.2 install discs and have finished the basic installation and setup. Now at some point if I wish to update the ports does that mean I have to update the OS to a particular level? If I don't want to run stable and use "tag=RELENG_6_2" will I be required to keep the ports as they have installed from the disc? Is there any connection between how current the ports are and how current the OS is? One of the things which caused me to wonder about this was that some time back I tried FreeBSD out for a while and ran into some oddities concerning the ports system. When I first finished setting things up I could install packages using "pkg_add -r", but noticed that after updating the ports I could no longer do that. That struck me as odd, and because of it I always had a suspicion that I had broken the system with my out of whack updates (I did not move up to stable at that time) but I just never could really find out if that were so. One last newb question is concerning cvsup itself. In reference to ports is there a difference, in the end, between this and portsnap? Do they result in the same ports? I am sure this is answered somewhere, but the handbook and other sites seem to take a somewhat ground-eye view of how to use them but don't dwell much on the mysteries behind what they do and how they may differ. Many thanks for any clarification that can be offered to me on these things. Patrick