question on cvsup

[Matthew Seaman]

On Sat, Sep 20, 2003 at 07:32:23PM -0700, Brian Dessent wrote:
> ALIAS wrote:
> > 
> > i read the manual that came with my freebsd4 package. and i see on the
> > website that there's a freebsd5, i want to use cvsup to update my system to
> > version 5, and i don't know how to do that, the manual doesn't explain it
> > well. can someone help me?
> 
> In the supfile that you use with cvsup, there's a line similar to
> "*default release=cvs tag=RELENG_4_8".  This specifies which version of
> the sources you want to sync to.  The handbook has a list of all the
> tags at
> <http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html>
> 
> But you should also be aware that 5.x (aka CURRENT) is not for everyone,
> you should read the handbook section at
> <http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html>
> that discusses who should use STABLE and who should use CURRENT.

The OP should note as well that updating from 4.x to 5.x by compiling
from source is not the easiest way of going about things.  The
src/UPDATING file from HEAD says this, hidden such long way down the
file that most people will probably have got bored and given up
reading before they get to it:

	To upgrade in-place from 4.x-stable to current 
	----------------------------------------------
	# 5.x uses more space than 4.x.  Also, the location of kernel
	# modules has changed.  If you are installing 5.0 onto a 4.x
	# system, you'll need about 30MB of free disk space on your /
	# partition.  If you have less than this, you may encounter difficult
	# to back out of problems with this procedure.  If /tmp is on
	# the / partition, you may want to completely remove all its content
	# before upgrading, as this can be a common source of shortage of
	# space on /.
	
	<make sure you have good level 0 dumps>
	<maybe fix /etc/fstab>				[7]
	make buildworld					[9]
	make buildkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE	[8]
	cp src/sys/${MACHINE}/conf/GENERIC.hints /boot/device.hints [2]
	make installkernel KERNCONF=YOUR_KERNEL_HERE
	cd src/sys/boot ; make install			[6]
							[1]
	<reboot in single user>				[3]
	mergemaster -p					[5]
	rm -rf /usr/include/g++
	make installworld
	mergemaster					[4]
	<reboot>

and the several subsequent pages that expand on the numbered points
therein. See

    http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/UPDATING?rev=1.266&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup  (5-CURRENT, HEAD)

or

    http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/UPDATING?rev=1.251.2.6&content-type=text/x-cvsweb-markup&only_with_tag=RELENG_5_1  (5.1-RELEASE-pN, RELENG_5_1)

Once you've upgraded your base system, you'll definitely need to
install 4.x-COMPAT libraries and you'll probably end up needing to
reinstall all of your ports.  Over all, you may well find it better to
back up your /home area and any other data you don't want to lose,
wipe your system and re-install 5.x from scratch, but that's a
judgement you'll have to make for yourself.

	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
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20030921/064fab22/attachment.bin