When is BuildWorld necessary?

[RW]

On Saturday 16 September 2006 20:41, Bob wrote:
> Hi:
>
> I recently installed FreeBSD  6.1 over the net from sources. I am keeping
> things up-to-date using CVSup.
>
> When portaudit tells me I have a security issue; I update/re-install the
> affected port. When a kernel patch comes in, I re-compile the kernel; which
> now stands at FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE-p6 #3.
>
> From what I can tell, buildworld re-builds the base system, something I
> have yet to do. My thought is to do a buildworld only  when the OS version
> is updated to the next number above 6.1.  I understand this happens at
> about 4 month intervals.
>
> My question is, is there a good reason to buildworld before a version
> change? I hate "fixing"  something which is working perfectly, and this
> system has been stellar!

Not all of the point releases are for the kernel, for example 6.1-RELEASE-p2 
was a sendmail fix.