Help understanding basic FreeBSD concepts (ports, updates, jails)

[Polytropon]

On Sat, 7 Nov 2009 10:57:54 -0600, Adam Vande More <amvandemore at gmail.com> wrote:
> There are three basic branches, CURRENT STABLE RELEASE
> 
> You want release.  You shouldn't run anything else unless you're willing and
> able to help with testing, debugging, and development.

That's a quite generic answer, but basically I agree.

On a production system, in most cases RELEASE is the branch
you want to follow, beginning from X.Y-RELEASE and then
tacking the security updates X.Y-RELEASE-pZ. The tool
freebsd-update is very good for this task, especially
when you're not running a custom kernel.

STABLE is a good solution when you want to use a stable
system, but are interested in additions between the releases.
Things that are tested and found working are present in
STABLE and will often appear in the upcoming RELEASE.

CURRENT is interesting for you - as Adam said - for
testing and development, and if you are intendedly
interested in "bleeding edge" software. Note that it
can happen that a CURRENT system of today won't build,
but will tomorrow. It's the development branch.

In any case: You should re-install or re-compile ALL of
your applications when you perform the step to a new
release (e. g. 7.2 -> 8.0). You can install the 7-compat
port to avoid this (downward compatibility libraries).




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...