Keeping installed packages up to date

[Kenneth A. Bond]

Hello,
I am a relatively new BSD user, making the move from
various Linux distros such as Debian GNU Linux. I have
been running Linux servers for quite some time in a
production environment, but based on recent events in
the Linux world, have made the decision to move to
FreeBSD.

I have made the move to FreeBSD due to its maturity,
stability and performance, not to mention that
extended releases are supported for two years from
their release, which is attractive in a
mission-critical environment.

I am trying to determine the best method of keeping my
installed packages up-to-date. My current environment
does not permit me to use CVSUP for synching my ports
tree (due to firewall constraints) so I have been
simply downloading the ports.tar.gz file from
ftp.freebsd.org.

I have followed the steps outlined in Richard
Bejtlich's document Keeping FreeBSD Applications
Up-To-Date
(http://www.taosecurity.com/keeping_freebsd_applications_up-to-date.html)
but I run into an issue where a number of installed
packages are either skipped or fail during
portupgrade.
My update process is as follows:

-Download port.tar.gz from ftp.freebsd.org
-Extract to /usr
-cd /usr/ports
-make fetchindex
-portsdb -u
-portversion -v -l "<"
-Check /usr/ports/UPDATING for information relating to
my applications
-portupgrade -varR or portupgrade -varRPP

My question is: is there an easier way of updating my
installed packages? The process described above is
incredibly time-consuming. I would like to know if
there is a less time consuming method, since I have
managers foaming at the mouth for my servers to be up
and online with the latest updates, as soon as
possible.

Please advise.

Thank you for your assistance.
KB


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