8.2-RELEASE-p4

[Robert Simmons]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 11:34 AM, Matthew Seaman
<m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk> wrote:
> Judging by the output you showed, you've certainly managed to download
> the -p4 binary patch set.  The 'No updates needed' message is just
> telling you you've already got all the necessary update patchsets
> downloaded.  The next step is running:
>
>  # freebsd-update install
>
> which will actually deploy those updates on your live system.  Which you
> do mention doing.  Hmmm...
>
> You aren't running a custom kernel according to your uname output, so
> your kernel image should have been updated.  However, you would still
> need to reboot after installing the updates. Until you do, programs like
> uname that query the currently running kernel image will continue to
> show the old version numbers.

I would encourage you to please run uname -a on your own box before
beating up the newbie.  I think I understand where his confusion lies.
 I checked the output on two of my boxes:

# freebsd-update fetch
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 4 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 8.2-RELEASE from update3.FreeBSD.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Preparing to download files... done.

No updates needed to update system to 8.2-RELEASE-p4.
# uname -a
FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3 #0: Tue Sep 27 18:07:27
UTC 2011     root at i386-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
 i386

All my machines are up to current patch level, but show p3 when I run uname -a.

> Note that if a security update is just to some userland programs,
> freebsd-update won't touch the OS kernel, so the reported version number
> doesn't change even though the update has been applied.  In these sort
> of cases, it's not necessary to reboot, just to restart any long running
> processes (if any) affected by the update.  The security advisory should
> have more detailed instructions about exactly what to do.  (The -p2 to
> -p3 update was like this, but the -p3 to -p4 update definitely did
> affect the kernel so a reboot was necessary.)

I'm not confident that you are correct here.  See above.  Either p3-p4
did not touch the kernel, or the OP has a legitimate question.