freebsd-update & userland sources

[Mel Flynn]

On Sunday 02 August 2009 16:10:37 Tom Mende wrote:
> Is there a way to get freebsd-update to keep userland sources up to
> date?

Since it is for binary upgrades, it doesn't make much sense, but ...

> By way of background, I am trying not to use csup / cvsup and like
> processes as their past, admittedly incorrect, usage by me, combined
> with my incompetent salvage operations, has hosed my systems to the
> point of needing to be reinstalled from scratch. I have been using a
> combination of portsnap and freebsd-update to keep my 7.2-RELEASE
> system up to date and commenced this at about 6.3-RELEASE and have
> managed to not hose the system since that time. It now however appears
> I need to have userland sources to keep fusefs-kmod up to date.
>
> /usr/ports/sysutils/fusefs-kmod>make install clean
> ===>  fusefs-kmod-0.3.9.p1.20080208_6 requires the userland sources to
> be installed. Set SRC_BASE if it is not in /usr/src.
> *** Error code 1

This is one case where one requires sources. You would still need csup/cvsup 
and if you're tracking a -RELEASE branch, it does not do very much. Also, 
because you're not actually going to build world/kernel, the risk of "hosing 
your system" is limited.

What freebsd-update could however do, is maintain a 'standard-supfile' that 
would have the correct tag at all times. For example:

Would you like to install a supfile for this release in /etc? [y/n] y
   Please choose a mirror [cvsup$random.FreeBSD.org]:
<freebsd-update installs standard-supfile from examples as /etc with 
configured mirror and correct release tag>

<freebsd-update shows how to invoke csup and a crontab example or periodic 
grows a csup script like attached>
-- 
Mel