From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 17 21:46:31 2009 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 27B5B106568D for ; Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:46:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from cswiger@mac.com) Received: from asmtpout014.mac.com (asmtpout014.mac.com [17.148.16.89]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1454B8FC52 for ; Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:46:30 +0000 (UTC) MIME-version: 1.0 Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Received: from cswiger1.apple.com ([17.227.140.124]) by asmtp014.mac.com (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-8.01 (built Dec 16 2008; 32bit)) with ESMTPSA id <0KOJ009FXJ5EP630@asmtp014.mac.com> for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:46:27 -0700 (PDT) Message-id: From: Chuck Swiger To: Chris Stankevitz In-reply-to: <4A89CA18.7000506@toyon.com> Date: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:46:26 -0700 References: <4A89BD3E.8020804@toyon.com> <4A89CA18.7000506@toyon.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.936) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Packages available for different FreeBSD versions 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: Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:46:31 -0000 On Aug 17, 2009, at 2:22 PM, Chris Stankevitz wrote: > When I install FreeBSD, I am installing a "core operating system > version number" (your term). Most people install FreeBSD from a release CD; ie, they install 6.4- RELEASE, or 7.2-RELEASE, or similar. > Then I may choose to install the "ports" as either "STABLE" or > "CURRENT" neither of which is associated with any "core operating > system version number". From this point on, all application updates > will arrive via "ports" . Ports are not branched-- there is no STABLE or CURRENT for ports. The same ports tree can be used on 6.x, 7.x, and 8-CURRENT. > A question: > > Imaging one person installs FreeBSD-6.4 RELEASE and updates to > STABLE ports. Another installs FreeBSD-7.2 RELEASE and also updates > to STABLE ports. Are there any applications that the FreeBSD-6.4 > person cannot install (e.g. the latest apache or VirtualBox)? If a port does not compile on a given OS version, something like the following is used in the port Makefile: ./audio/mumble/Makefile-.if ${OSVERSION} < 700000 ./audio/mumble/Makefile:BROKEN= Does not compile on FreeBSD < 7.0 ./audio/mumble/Makefile-.endif The same mechanism can be used for ports that do not compile on a particular architecture, such as amd64 or sparc. See: http://www.freshports.org/ports-broken.php > If so, by what mechanism is he prevented? The port Makefiles will return an error if/when the port is known to be broken under a certain circumstance. > What are the repercussions of never updating the "core operating > system version number"? Well, you'll miss ongoing security updates and improvements to the system. Eventually, if you refuse to update the base OS for a very long period of time (years), you'll end up running an unsupported version of the OS and some of the ongoing updates to the ports tree may not work properly. > FYI my experience is with Gentoo which as no "core operating system > version number". All system updates come from "portage" (like your > ports). > > > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/ > > > > They are arranged by computer architecture and release number. > There > > are also stable directories for certain releases. > > Thank you for providing this. It raises two questions: > > 1. If the STABLE ports tree is not associated with a "core operating > system version number", why are there two directories for STABLE > packages: > > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-6-stable/ > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7-stable/ When you compile something, you normally end up with runtime dependencies upon a particular version of the C libraries, so the packages for 6-STABLE and 7-STABLE are not the same. However, 6- STABLE packages should run on a 7.x OS if you've got the misc/compat6x port installed, which makes the 6.x shared libraries available on a 7.x or 8.x version FreeBSD. > 2. What is the difference between these two? > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7.2-release/ > ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/amd64/packages-7-stable/ > > My guess: > The first is the packages that were made available in the 7.2 > RELEASE CDs. You're right, here. > The second is a directory that is re-created every 5 minutes by > updating the ports collection and compiling all the applications in > it. Sort of. It takes longer than 5 minutes to rebuild all ~20K ports, but yes, the 7-stable packages are updated continuously over time.... Regards, -- -Chuck