Keeping FreeBSD updated (the binary way)

[RW]

On Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:58:13 +0100
Svein Halvor Halvorsen <svein.h at lvor.halvorsen.cc> wrote:


> Is it possible to pkg_add -r packages from -STABLE on the latest 
> -RELEASE? That is, will the following work, or slowly render my
> system to an incoherent state:
> 
> 1) Regularly run freebsd-update
> 2) Regularly run portsnap
> 3) Set my PACKAGESITE to the -STABLE location
> 4) Regularly run portupgrade -P
> 

It'll work most of the time, but occasionally it will fail, when a
STABLE package relies on a library or other feature that's not in the
release.

A compromise might be to stick to the release packages, until portaudit
reveals a significant vulnerability and then switch to Stable until
the next release.