Why does cvsup + supfile delete all my ports ?

[Jud]

On Thu, 10 Jul 2003 22:17:38 +0900, "Rob Lahaye" <lahaye at snu.ac.kr> said:
> 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> For my FreeBSD 4.8 PC, my supfile for cvsup contains:
> 
> *default host=cvsup2.freebsd.org
> *default prefix=/usr
> *default base=/usr
> *default release=cvs tag=RELENG_4
> *default delete use-rel-suffix
> *default compress
> ports-all
> 
> When I run "cvsup -L2 supfile", it deletes all the ports.
> Why is that?
> 
> 
> I then have reinstalled the ports (from "/stand/sysinstall").
> I also changed the supfile to:
> 
> *default host=cvsup2.freebsd.org
> *default prefix=/usr
> *default base=/usr
> *default release=cvs tag=.
> *default delete use-rel-suffix
> *default compress
> ports-all
> 
> (Only the "tag" has changed from "RELENG_4" to the dot ".").
> 
> This works; well, at least the ports are not deleted, but updated.
> But updated to what?
> 
> Why can I not use the RELENG_4 for my 4.8 ports selection?
> 
> Will the dot update my ports to the ports of 5.x series?
> If so, will that cause trouble for my 4.8 system?
> 
> What should I do to safely update my ports?
> 
> Thanks!
> Rob.

As Will Saxon and Lowell Gilbert pointed out, both the Handbook and the
example supfiles themselves contain information on this topic.  To put it
very simply, as has often been noted in FreeBSD-questions (thus available
with a Google Groups search), -CURRENT and -STABLE have the same ports
collection.

Handbook, FAQ, man pages, example files, Google Groups searches and other
resources such as <URL: http://www.onlamp.com/bsd/> are excellent places
to find thorough, freely available information.  If you'd like a
reference sitting on your desk, there's Greg Lehey's "The Complete
FreeBSD" or Michael Lucas' "Absolute BSD."  And if you can't seem to find
what you need in any of these places or are confused by what you read
there, why, there's always this list.  :)

Jud