Updating sources and rebuilding system

[David Wolfskill]

On Wed, Jun 08, 2016 at 09:26:55PM -0300, Rafael Rodrigues Nakano wrote:
> Hello guys, I have a question.
> 
> I update the system sources daily, and I want to know how often I should
> rebuild the kernel and the world (if its actual necessary, I heard it takes
> a very long time) after updating the sources. Thanks in advance
> ....

That depends... among other things, on why you (think you might)
want to "rebuild the kernel and the world."

I have some notes available (e.g.,
<http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/FreeBSD/history/> and links contained
therein) on what I do.  I recommend that folks almost certainly ought
not copy that blindly, as my reasons for doing it are unlikely to be
others'.

As to how long it takes... well, that (also) depends.  In my case, on my
laptop, updating FreeBSD base this morning from FreeBSD 10.3-STABLE #387
r301506 to FreeBSD 10.3-STABLE #388  r301581 took:

* 00:06 to update the sources;
* 09:23 to rebuild the world & kernel, install the kernel & world & run
          mergemaster;
* a few minutes (not recorded in a typescript) for a verbose boot;
* 00:05 to "make delete-old-libs" and a bit of housekeeping.

It then took:
* 02:58 to update the installed ports (after which I rebooted again).

[Above times are expressed in minutes:seconds, and based on the
script(1) start & end timestamps.]

During almost all of the above time, I was logged in to the laptop,
running X11, catching up with email, and generally being fairly
busy.

As for the above-quoted timings: that's a "sample size" of "one," so
expecting it to be representative based merely on what's been presented
here would be silly.

Also, a greater delay between updates "generally" corresponds to "more
updates" -- and that often corresponds to more time required for the
update, as well as a somewhat-higher probability of disruption.  (You
should read src/UPDATING for any recent notes before you do this sort of
thing.)

But unless you have some desire to be on the bleeding edge, you probably
don't need to be doing any of this -- freebsd-update may meet your needs,
for example.

Peace,
david
-- 
David H. Wolfskill				david at catwhisker.org
Those who would murder in the name of God or prophet are blasphemous cowards.

See http://www.catwhisker.org/~david/publickey.gpg for my public key.
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