easy patch management tools

[Gerard Seibert]

Aaron Bliss wrote:

> Hi everyone, first let me say that I'm pretty new to bsd, so please forgive
> the newbie questions; I've been using linux (redhat, suse, centos) for many
> years, and so learning bsd was a bit of a learning curve, but not bad (I
> almost never use gui's for administration); I was wondering if there are any
> packagement tools for freebsd/pcbsd that offer simular functionality to
> up2date or yum; I take care of installing and updating complete rpm based
> systems using yum, and have not found a tool simular to yum for freebds (I'm
> also trying to stay away from pbi's, since they are specific to pcbsd); I've
> used the pkg_add, pkg_delete, portupgrade tools, but am just looking for an
> easy way to ensure my entire bsd box is updated; Also, as I understand it,
> bsd makes use of ports, by using tools such as cvsup, however I have never
> had much success compiling my own software, as such much prefer to use
> binary packages, which I understand that the freebsd authors provide; for
> example, if I wanted to install pine, I would much rather install it by
> running pkg_add -r pine ; I'm just looking for a simple way to update
> currently installed binaries, simular to installing new binaries with
> pkg_add ; thanks very much for your help with this.

I am assuming you have FreeBSD 6.1 installed.

Using the ports system is really quite easy. It is rather imperative
however that you read the /usr/ports/UPDATING test prior to updating
your ports. It has tips, etc that you might require. An important one is
the switch to Fedora Core 4 as the linux base. You can locate it under:
20060616 in the UPDATING document.

I would recommend that you run portsnap to update your ports. Read the
man for documentation. Then follow the directions in UPDATING to get the
linux base port updated. You might need to install 'portupgrade' unless
you installed it during your original installation process.

Now, there are several options for updating you entire system.
Personally, I prefer 'portmanager' for handling the task. You will have
to install it as it is not part of the base system. After installing it,
just run:
     
     portmanager -f -l -y

That will rebuild your program base and insure that the dependencies are
correct.

HTH

-- 
Gerard Seibert
gerard at seibercom.net