About Patches

[Matthew Seaman]

On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 11:53:36AM +0300, Jim Xochellis wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Monday, June 23, 2003, at 11:48 PM, D J Hawkey Jr wrote:
> 
> >In article <5BC51B1E-A558-11D7-B54A-003065C4E486_escape.gr at ns.sol.net>,
> >	dxoch at escape.gr writes:
> >>Hi List,
> >>
> >>I need to apply some security patches to my FreeBSD(i386) 4.7-RELEASE
> >>box and I am concerned about the possibility that I could actually 
> >>harm
> >>my system while trying to apply this patches. (I am not a Unix guru
> >>actually)
> >
> >Is there any particular reason you don't want to use cvsup(1) against
> >the "security" or "current" branches? Release 4.7 is still supported by
> >the Security Team, after all. See the Handbook if you don't know what
> >this means.
> >
> 
> Recompiling the whole system seems a little scary to me, but I thing 
> that I am going to do it anyway!

Yes -- if you apply patches or you use cvsup(1), you get updated
source code, which you've got to compile and install -- either the
whole system or just the parts affected by the patch.  This seems
alarming to the uninitiated, but once you've done it a few times, it
becomes routine.

On the other hand, check out the security/freebsd-update port and it's
associated web site at http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update/ --
this isn't an 'official' part of FreeBSD yet (surely only a matter of
time, though).  This is a very interesting system for generating
minimally sized binary patches that can be applied directly to a
system without requiring a compilation step.

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                       26 The Paddocks
                                                      Savill Way
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey         Marlow
Tel: +44 1628 476614                                  Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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