8.2-RELEASE-p4

[Matthew Seaman]

On 11/11/2011 14:10, Tom Carpenter wrote:
> I'm new to FreeBSD and after looking through the FreeBSD website I
> think I may have answered my question, but thought I would say that
> the message "No updates needed to update system to 8.2-RELEASE-p4"
> seems a little contradictory: if "8.2-RELEASE-p4" isn't relevant for
> my FreeBSD installation why mention it.
> 
> As far as answering my question, i.e. 'how does one install
> 8.2-RELEASE-p4 on a system running 8.2-RELEASE-p3', if I understand the
> relevant security advisory,
> 
> http://security.freebsd.org/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-11:05.unix.asc
> 
> it looks like "8.2-RELEASE-p4" is an update for source, consequently,
> I'm getting the output that I am from freebsd-update because I don't
> have any source installed on my system.

Uh -- I think you are confused.  All security patches are issued as not
only as source code updates (for those that build from source) but also
as compiled binary updates via freebsd-update.

Judging by the output you showed, you've certainly managed to download
the -p4 binary patch set.  The 'No updates needed' message is just
telling you you've already got all the necessary update patchsets
downloaded.  The next step is running:

  # freebsd-update install

which will actually deploy those updates on your live system.  Which you
do mention doing.  Hmmm...

You aren't running a custom kernel according to your uname output, so
your kernel image should have been updated.  However, you would still
need to reboot after installing the updates. Until you do, programs like
uname that query the currently running kernel image will continue to
show the old version numbers.

Note that if a security update is just to some userland programs,
freebsd-update won't touch the OS kernel, so the reported version number
doesn't change even though the update has been applied.  In these sort
of cases, it's not necessary to reboot, just to restart any long running
processes (if any) affected by the update.  The security advisory should
have more detailed instructions about exactly what to do.  (The -p2 to
-p3 update was like this, but the -p3 to -p4 update definitely did
affect the kernel so a reboot was necessary.)

> That message will go away if I edit `8.2-RELEASE-p3' to read
> `8.2-RELEASE' but I'm not sure if that's the appropriate
> solution...would I get the current versions of packages if I
> did that?

Yes -- that should be absolutely fine.  All 8.x versions of the OS
should be binary compatible, and any ports compiled for anything
labelled 8.2-RELEASE should work irrespective of the patch level.   In
fact, with a very small number of exceptions, ports compiled for any OS
version with a major version number of '8' should work.  Exceptions are
programs like eg. lsof(1) which accesses certain kernel internals in
non-portable ways.

	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

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