before new version

Polytropon freebsd at edvax.de
Sat Nov 3 19:11:25 UTC 2012


On Sat, 3 Nov 2012 12:25:12 -0500, ajtiM wrote:
> On Saturday 03 November 2012 12:18:35 Polytropon wrote:
> > On Sat, 3 Nov 2012 11:23:12 -0500, ajtiM wrote:
> > > Hi!
> > > 
> > > Could someone explain, please why ports should be frozen before a new
> > > version of FreeBSD came out?
> > 
> > The idea is to make sure that RELEASE can be shipped with
> > installation media (CD, DVD) for offline use which requires
> > ports mostly to be tested and working in some specific state,
> > and then the packages (those you can access on the installation
> > media) are generated from them. It's handy for systems that
> > do not have Internet access to install software off-line.
> > 
> > > It happened all the time and after update (if you update or not) there
> > > are so many ports for updating. In case for very long waiting for
> > > version 9.1 will be thousands of them.
> > 
> > That could probably be. Most users who have Internet access
> > and run servers (and also home systems) will tend to update
> > the OS beyond RELEASE and also do so with the ports collection,
> > or alternatively also use pkg_add -r from the Latest/ directory
> > instead of RELEASE (which _always_ contains the ports generated
> > from the frozen ports tree).
> 
> Thank you very much.
> 
> BTW: packages are almost all the time outdated.

The packages in the RELEASE directory and on the installation
media meet the frozen ports tree (frozen _prior_ to the release
date), so yes, they are a bit outdated, but they are considered
"mostly stable and usable" when in use with what is distributed.
On the server, both _those_ packages _and_ those in Latest/ (which
are periodically built from the "advancing" ports tree after the
release date) are often considered not _that_ current as if you
would use CVS or SVN to obtain the "bleeding edge" latest ports
tree and build from source.

So yes, you could say what you said. :-)


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


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