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Date:      Wed, 17 Jan 2007 18:33:00 +0200
From:      Ion-Mihai "IOnut" Tetcu <itetcu@FreeBSD.org>
To:        "Jason C. Wells" <jcw@highperformance.net>
Cc:        Stevan Tiefert <stevan-tiefert@t-online.de>, freebsd-chat@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Security Patches for Port Applications in Releases
Message-ID:  <20070117183300.1457a9df@it.buh.tecnik93.com>
In-Reply-To: <45ADE8FA.7080300@highperformance.net>
References:  <200701160525.22382.stevan-tiefert@t-online.de> <45ADE8FA.7080300@highperformance.net>

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On Wed, 17 Jan 2007 01:14:34 -0800
"Jason C. Wells" <jcw@highperformance.net> wrote:

 [ .. a lot of true and nice things .. ]

> I personally run only so-called -release ports.  The reason I do is
> it seems to reduce the amount of version dependency headaches I
> suffer. When I used to track the ports (which are in -head) with
> cvsup I would end up with 4 different versions of gmake, autoconf,
> libtool et al. Yuck!  I think that's a good reason to run ports that
> are tagged with the current release.  There's a lot more stability
> and a lot less work. That is advantage enough for me.

Actually the multiple versions of auto* didn't have anything to do with
release packages or anything else. We just had a ports that did
build only with a specific version (and some hacks in our framework). A
lot of work has been put in simplifying this.

> > - Is an security-patch-update-system for release-packages/ports
> > planned? =20

No. We just don't have the human and hardware resources.
If you really need that and want to pay for it some of us would be
willing to do it (for a limited number of ports).

> One exists.  It's just not as easy as it is for the main release
> branches.
>=20
> Release-packages is something of a misnomer anyway.  A more pedantic
> but more accurate name would be=20
> "packages-that-just-happened-to-be-in-HEAD-when-we-pulled-the-release-swi=
tch-with-extra-care-given-to-gnome-and-kde". =20

Not exactly. There's a lot of extra work put in before and during the
ports freeze to make sure the ports are in the best condition possible
and those that need to be are marked broken. We try to concentrate more
on bug-fixing that on updates or new ports.

> What I mean to say is that it is inappropriate to place any more
> trust or scrutiny on a release-package.  The release-package
> distinction is almost entirely accidental. [...]

Actually there's an other thing: the release packages/ports are
"guaranteed" to work on that release (at least in theory). But no such
thing exists for the ports at any given time, ie. ports/packages from
today 12:00 UTC are required to work on today 12:00 UTC supported
-STABLE branches and not on any supported -REALEASE or -SECURITY.


--=20
IOnut - Un^d^dregistered ;) FreeBSD "user"
  "Intellectual Property" is   nowhere near as valuable   as "Intellect"

BOFH excuse #422:
Someone else stole your IP address, call the Internet detectives!



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