gemeral questions (noobish)

[mcassar]

On Saturday 02 August 2008 17:32:53 RW wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:50:48 +0200
>
> mcassar <marshc187 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > firstly - i have installed kde3 and xfce4 from packages (like most of
> > it -> xorg,etc) and have tried updates before with different results.
> > i don't mind messing things up, as long as i can somehow surf or
> > check mails - but would like to do a *proper* update.
> >
> > firstly, are [freebsd-update] and [cvsup stable src.all] necessary
> > before installing anything from ports?
>
> freebsd-update does a binary update to the base system, csup of src-all
> is for fetching source to rebuild the base system. You can build ports
> and base independently
>
> BTW you should be using csup (in the base system), not cvsup. cvsup was
> written in modulo2, csup is a rewrite in C with fewer dependencies
>
> Also if you are new to FreeBSD, you should probably not be using a
> stable branch, these are stable development branches. Consider using a
> security branch like RELENG_7_0, and later moving to RELENG_7_1 and so
> on.
>
> > and are ports considered
> > stable or current? or are they automatically matched to the installed
> > version?
>
> There's only one version of ports, the builds automatically adapt to
> your basesystem version.
>
> > also, do portsnap and cvsup ports do the same thing? i've tried cvsup
> > exactly after portsnap and it still seems to edit/update the ports
> > tree.
>
> They're more or less the same. portsnap is faster, but it's for ports
> only and is less flexible.
>
> > why i'm confused is that i get alot of warnings when many ports try
> > to build, and many hiccups in apps once they are installed, and i
> > don't know which way to go --- gcc manual and fixing my environment,
> > build options, etc,, or if it still something in the actual ports?
>
> You don't need to set much, if anything. Read the entries
> in /usr/ports/UPDATING before doing an upgrade. Most build problems
> will fix themselves within a day or two if you resync the ports tree.
>
>
>
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damn, thanks - I had mistaken stable to be what is release; i had come across 
the difference at some point but didn't realise when i tried cvsup (which i 
also mistook to be more recent than csup).

I only tried csup on ports once and wasn't too sure i should since the 
handbook or somewhere mentioned the ports tree should be empty the first time 
you run it; and got the impression you should only use either or (csup vs 
portsnap).

anyhow i think that only my nvidia driver instructions mentioned it relies on 
what i think are system sources (kernel related - if i'm not mistaken) - but 
i haven't touched that yet.

I hate to bother any further but have one thing to clarify about building 
attempts - when building anything, if that's ok. I only have a basic 
understanding of C so far, and can't really tell how critical warnings are - 
such as undefined this and that, defined but not used...etc, when building a 
port.  should i stop those and see how i should fix them or let them proceed 
as long as they're not errors? I can live with my current system for now, but 
have a few things i need to update eventually.

again, many thanks for the reply and clarifying.

mcassar