Packages available for different FreeBSD versions

[Chuck Swiger]

On Aug 17, 2009, at 3:08 PM, Chris Stankevitz wrote:
> Chuck Swiger wrote:
>> Ports are not branched-- there is no STABLE or CURRENT for ports.   
>> The same ports tree can be used on 6.x, 7.x, and 8-CURRENT.
>
> 1. With what is the STABLE/CURRENT tag associated?
> a) "core operating system version number"
> b) the ports collection
> c) something else

The core OS.  If you install 7.2-RELEASE, and then update the OS  
software against 7-STABLE (which is CVS tag RELENG_7), you will get  
security fixes and other changes which will eventually become 7.3- 
RELEASE.

If you just want security updates and no other changes, you'd update  
against RELENG_7_2 instead.

>>> What are the repercussions of never updating the "core operating  
>>> system version number"?
>> Well, you'll miss ongoing security updates and improvements to the  
>> system.
>
> 2. I thought security updates and improvements to the system would  
> arrive via the ports mechanism. What kinds of things are not updated  
> via ports?  (My experience is with Gentoo where everything is  
> updated via portage and there is no "core operating system version  
> number").

In other platforms, everything is a package, and can be updated via  
portage, yum, etc.  In the BSDs, the baseline or core OS is separate  
from installed ports or packages, and is updated separately from them.

Regards,
-- 
-Chuck