Going to BSD 8 from RELENG_7

[Doug Barton]

Dan Allen wrote:
> I cvsup and build RELENG_7 many times a week.  This has served me well
> (except for the ZFS boot problem I had that went in and was backed out)
> for quite a while.
> 
> I like to track a STABLE release.  When BSD 7 went to 7.1 and to 7.2, it
> all just happened automatically with the way I do things.
> 
> Now I am interested on one of my BSD machines to try 8.0.  I need to
> change my cvsup target from RELENG_7 to CURRENT I believe.  Is that
> true?  When will STABLE become 8.0?

Minor terminology issue, "STABLE" is not the name of one version of
FreeBSD, it is the label appended to the version number during the
ongoing development of the branch after a release. So there are
currently 6.4-STABLE and 7.2-STABLE branches, and after 8.0-RELEASE
there will be an 8.0-STABLE. BTW, the -STABLE name refers to the API
in that branch, as well as (hopefully) the fact that running it should
be safe/stable.

If you're interested in testing the new 8.0 version before it is
released we would all be very glad to have you do that. :)  The more
testers we get before release the more certain we can be that there
are no problems with it. I would like to make one suggestion though,
if you could hold off until the 8.0-BETA3 is ready and test a clean
install using the cd iso image that would be great! We never get
enough people testing clean installations so this is something that is
very valuable.

Obviously however you test this you'd want to back up your data and
any relevant configuration stuff first.

Oh, and any feedback on your experiences can go to the freebsd-current
mailing list until after the release.


Good luck,

Doug

-- 

    This .signature sanitized for your protection