freebsd-install upgrade, how many install phases required

[Matthew Seaman]

On 23/07/2010 17:19:54, Martin Koch Andersen wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Will freebsd-install upgrade tell you, if any libraries version numbers got bumped, and thus if installed packages needs rebuilding?
> 
> I followed the handbook and did the 8.0-RELEASE to 8.1-RELEASE upgrade like:
> 
> freebsd-update -r 8.1-RELEASE upgrade
> freebsd-update install
> shutdown -r now
> freebsd-update install

freebsd-update only updates the *base* system.  It doesn't update the
ports tree at all.  For that, you need portsnap, which works very much
like freebsd-update (or else one of a number of alternatives like
csup(1), which work differently.)

Once you've updated the ports tree using portsnap (or whatever) then you
can update your installed ports from it, which is where tools like
portupgrade(1) or portmaster(1) come in.  portupgrade(1) won't find any
work to do unless you have run portsnap first.

> And then:
> 
> portupgrade -af
> freebsd-update install
> shutdown -r now
> 
> But was this last round of rebuilding installed ports etc. really needed? Or would the second "freebsd-update install" have told me if it was? In any case, the last "freebsd-update install" did nothing.

If the OS major version is the same, then the shlib ABI version on all
the shlibs in the base system is still the same.  That's a guarantee by
the FreeBSD project.  Or in other words, binary compatibility between
all 8.x releases (or all 7.x, or whatever).  So, there is no reason to
update ports that is caused by using freebsd-update to do a minor
version upgrade.  No, you didn't need to run 'portupgrade -af' at all.

Running portsnap and then 'portupgrade -a' would however have been a
reasonably good idea since you were in an upgrading mood.  Ports may
well have become out of date due to the normal updating of the ports
tree over the passage of time.  This is largely independent of
development schedules in the base system, so should there can be updates
available to apply at just about any time.

On the other hand, if you do a *major* version upgrade, you simply *do*
need to reinstall every port.  freebsd-update warns you about this
directly, and the necessity of doing so is well documented all over the
place eg. at Colin Percival's blog:
http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2007-11-11-freebsd-major-version-upgrade.html

	Cheers,

	Matthew

-- 
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil.                   7 Priory Courtyard
                                                  Flat 3
PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey     Ramsgate
JID: matthew at infracaninophile.co.uk               Kent, CT11 9PW

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 267 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20100723/1ccaccc3/signature.pgp