difference between cvsup and portsnap

[Glen Barber]

Hi, Barry

On Fri, May 29, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Barry McCormick <barry at pdc4u.com> wrote:
> Here at my work we use FreeBSD in production.  We have the following
> debate and wish to know better the differences between cvsup(csup) and
> portsnap.  One of my co-workers think that portsnap should NOT be used
> and only gets the latest and greatest port collection, no matter what
> version  of FreeBSD is on the server.   For example, if you are still
> running a 5.4 stable box in production and use any of the portsnap,
> portupgrade, etc utilities, you would pull the current version ports and
> NOT from teh directory of the 5.4 ports. I.E, risk breaking the
> production box.  So you should not use portsnap ever except for dev
> boxes.
>

Either way, with 5.X being EOL'd, there is no guarantee current ports
will work.

> I have always used portsnap to set up a new machine.  I have never had
> it pull a wrong port that I knew of.  I think it has to pay attention to
> the version of the ports it is pulling.
>
>
> which is right?  This is a major issue with our production servers.
> Thanks
>

Neither one is "right", per se.  However, if you use one, continue to
use _that_one_ to avoid conflicts.

-- 
Glen Barber