No updates needed to update system to 8.2-RELEASE-p6 but still on 8.2-RELEASE-p3

[Matthew Seaman]

On 19/02/2012 11:17, Antonio Olivares wrote:
> I hope this is the case, but that -p3 makes me think?  I am hesistant
> to move to 9.0-RELEASE as of yet.  There will apparently be an
> 8.3-RELEASE and I am not sure whether I have to rebuild all ports if I
> update to newer release.  I have read some places that one does not
> have to rebuild all ports, and just install compat8.x/ special port.
> In FreeBSD Handbook, it still recommends to rebuild all ports.  It
> took me a while to get going last time I moved from 8.1-RELEASE to
> 8.2-RELEASE, so I am hesistant to do it :(   And not being sure about
> this, I am in the thinking process of what should I do.

If you upgrade from 8.2 to 8.3 then you don't need to rebuild all your
ports.  There's a guarantee of ABI compatibility for all 8.x releases,
meaning that with a very few exceptions, anything that runs on one 8.x
version will run on any of them.  The exceptions are programs that go
grovelling into kernel memory -- lsof(8) is probably the only one most
people will encounter.

On the other hand, if you upgrade from 8.x to 9.0, then yes you will
have to rebuild all your ports.  If you install compat8x you can /run/
programs built for 8.x on 9.0, but you can't[*] upgrade or install a lot
of programs that use shlibs from ports.   Ultimately it is less hassle
just to rebuild everything and be done with it.

	Cheers,

	Matthew


[*] Well, unless you are a Unix guru and wize in the ways of the dynamic
loader.

-- 
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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