Newbie Question - what does the "...-p6" mean?

[Bill Moran]

In response to ograbme <ograbme at gmail.com>:

> 
> Hello All.
> 
> Thursday, September 14, 2006, 4:24:43 AM, RJ45 wrote in regards to his
> message titled "Memory problem":
> 
> <snip>
> 
> R> I am running FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p6 build with buildworld.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> What does the "-p6" nomenclature represent in the above statement?
> I've noticed some messages have contained various "-pX's".  I recently
> just installed FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p0 (according to -uname command)
> from a FreeBSD Mall 4-CD set, dated May 2006.  Does this "-p" number
> represent an updated ?Version? containing new patches or ...?

The 'p' is for "patch level".
See any of the security advisories, for example:
http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-06:20.bind.asc

Patch releases are only made when there are security flaws found or
major stability problems fixed.

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.

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