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Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 08:24:55 +0100
From: Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org>
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To: "William A. Mahaffey III" <wam@hiwaay.net>
Subject: Re: Noob question ....
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On 16/10/2014 00:50, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
> On 10/15/14 18:36, Polytropon wrote:
>> On Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:32:45 -0500, William A. Mahaffey III wrote:
>>>
>>> As a card-carrying noob to FreeBSD, I have a question .... Recent posts
>>> have referred to version 9.3-STABLE of FreeBSD .... My uname output
>>> appears below, obviously labeled RELEASE, not STABLE .... How do I
>>> 'upgrade' from 9.3-RELEASE to 9.3-STABLE ?
>> By checking out the required source and rebuilding your
>> kernel and operating system.
>>
>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/current-stable.html
>>
>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/synching.html
>>
>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/makeworld.html
>>
>> Also see the comment header of /usr/src/Makefile which
>> provides a short description of the targets and the
>> updating procedure.
>>
>> However, you can use freebsd-update to binarily track
>> security changes for the -RELEASE branch, keeping your
>> system current. Note that -STABLE is a development branch,
>> and even though it's stable, there _might_ be problems
>> with it. The most experimental branch is -CURRENT or -HEAD
>> from which -STABLE is "distilled", and from that, -RELEASE
>> is usually being created.
>
>
> *Aaaaaaaaack* !!!! That clarifies an important misunderstanding for me
> .... I thought STABLE would be more/most stable, maybe a refinement on
> RELEASE .... Thx for the clarification.

Think of "stable" as in "doctors said his condition was stable". :-)

-CURRENT == will break regularly.

-STABLE == shouldn't break but might occasionally.

-RELEASE == won't break (if your hardware is OK and you don't do 
something stupid).