Upgrading BSD

[Robert Huff]

Ralph Ellis writes:

>  Usually you have to upgrade from major release to major release
>  i.e. 4.8 to 5.5, 5.5 to 6.1 etc. However, if you are only
>  protecting data files then copy them to a cd, dvd or separate
>  disk drive and do a clean install of 6.1. If you want to protect
>  configuration files then you may have to upgrade step by
>  step. Upgrading using the make buildworld, make build kernel,
>  make install kernel, reboot, make install world, mergemaster
>  process is time comsuming. If you only need to protect data, then
>  copy it off and do a clean install.

	Optimal solution (if available):

	change address on old disk, set jumper to "read-only"
	install new disk
	install FreeBSD on new disk
	mount old disk "read-only"
	copy as desired

	Seriously: you can* source upgrade across major versions - been
there - but every iteration is another possible failure mode.
You'll also be stuck with all the crud left over from previous versions.


					Robert Huff


* - unless the Release Engineering folks say otherwise