9.0 beta2 & the new bsdinstaller

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 25 Sep 2011, Antonio Olivares wrote:

>> More concerns and questions onthe new bsdinstall:
>>
>> There is no upgrade function.  How will a user be able to upgrade to BETA3 (or RC1?) without wiping out BETA2 installation?
>>
>> For instance, user might have built many software applications from ports and not want to rebuild everything.
>>
>
> I have the same doubt/question.  If I update the system via the ports,
> do I have BETA3/RC1?  or do I have to run
> # freebsd-update
>
> to get the current release?

The operating system is separate from ports.  Source upgrades or 
freebsd-update are used to upgrade FreeBSD, while portsnap and 
portmaster/portupgrade are used to update ports.

> Also, like is suggested, if I update by any means, I will probably
> have to delete && reinstall everything in the ports.  Is there a way
> not to do this?

Ports built for 9.x normally do not need to be rebuilt to continue to 
run on 9.x+1.  The ABI is "stable" (unchanging).