Re: Update for 14.3 when it is out of date - not pretty

Mike <the.lists@mgm51.com> writes:
> Is that the regular procedure when using freebsd-update?  i.e., ...
>
>    freebsd-update fetch
>    freebsd-update upgrade
>    freebsd-update install
>
> ?

No, `freebsd-update fetch` fetches and prepares patches for the current
release, while `freebsd-update upgrade` fetches and prepares an upgrade
(or downgrade) from your current release to another.  You do one or the
other, not both, then run `freebsd-update install` to apply the result.

> The man page for freebsd-update says that "upgrade" is used when
> upgrading to a new release.  It makes no mention of using "upgrade"
> when updating a current release.  If I run it when I am doing an
> update for a current release, will it upgrade me to a new release?

`freebsd-update upgrade` alone will only print an error message:

    % sudo freebsd-update upgrade                
    freebsd-update: Release target must be specified via '-r' option.

nor will it let you “upgrade” to the same release:

    % sudo freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.0-RELEASE
    freebsd-update: Cannot upgrade from 15.0-RELEASE to itself

unless you lie to it about what you are currently running:

    % freebsd-version
    15.0-RELEASE-p9
    % sudo freebsd-update upgrade -r 15.0-RELEASE --currently-running 14.3-RELEASE
    Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 3 mirrors found.
    Fetching metadata signature for 14.3-RELEASE from update2.freebsd.org... done.
    Fetching metadata index... done.
    Fetching 2 metadata patches.. done.
    Applying metadata patches... done.
    Fetching 2 metadata files... done.
    [...]

so there is no way to accidentally upgrade.

DES
-- 
Dag-Erling Smørgrav - des@FreeBSD.org