Can you install packages from STABLE in RELEASE?

[Stefan Bethke]

Am 04.08.2006 um 01:19 schrieb Henry Lenzi:

> Hi --
>
> I'm currently running 6.0-SECURITY
> My portsnap tells me of a bunch of ports that have updates that, when
> I head directly for an ftp site, I find on a STABLE tree (like
> kde-3.5.3 - actually 3.5.2 until yesterday)
>
> For instance, ftp://ftp2.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/i386/ 
> packages-6.0-release/x11/
> lists kde-3.4.2.tbz
>
> Can I install these on RELEASE? If not, why does portsnap even  
> suggest them?

The ports tree has no branches (like RELENG_5 or RELENG_6).  Portsnap  
get's you the current state of the ports tree into /usr/ports.

You can install them from that source on a supported FreeBSD release  
(like 6.0-pX == RELENG_6_0), using the usual ways to build ports (cd / 
usr/ports/xxx/yyy; make install or portinstall).

When a release is built, the binary packages that go onto the CDs are  
built from the then-current ports tree. The FTP servers carry what  
got included in the CDs, so those packages will never change.

The stable packages on the FTP servers are regularly built with the  
current ports tree.  Since they are built on a stable release  
(FreeBSD-6-stable == RELENG_6), they might work on an early release,  
but that is not guaranteed.  If you want to use these packages, you  
should have a fairly recent stable release.

To sum it up: you can install/upgrade the ports, but you cannot  
install the stable packages on a security release.


Stefan

-- 
Stefan Bethke <stb at lassitu.de>   Fon +49 170 346 0140