upgrading 5.4 -> 6.0 without reinstalling. safe ?

[Claus Guttesen]

> usually when I upgrade across major versions of BSD I wipe the whole
> machine and re--install from scratch. But I understand that the move
> to 6.0 from 5.4 is nowhere near such a big leap.
>
> So I was wondering hether I could just do this from source without any
> ill effects, as if I was upgrading 5.4->5.5. I have nnever tried this before
> though, and was wondering if there are any major pitfalls (i.e. is it actually
> a really bad idea?)

The easiest would be to

1. cvsup to RELENG_6 (or RELENG_6_0)
2. cd /usr/src
3. make buildworld
4. make buildkernel
5. make installkernel
6. mergemaster -p
7. reboot into single-usermode and verify your new kernel works
8. mount -a
9. make installworld
10. mergemaster
11. reboot

All described in /usr/src/Makefile (and the handbook). You may need to
reinstall some apps, but most should work with compat5x in place.

regards
Claus