Keeping FreeBSD with custom kernel up to date: freebsd-update no option?

[andreas scherrer]

Thank you, Polytropon.

I have (as far as I can tell) successfully upgraded to 9.1-RELEASE-p2
now. For this I moved /usr/src (SVN) out of the way and followed the
upgrade process described in "25.2.3.2 Performing the Upgrade" in the
Handbook [1].

on 17.4.13 22:55  Polytropon said the following:
> On Wed, 17 Apr 2013 22:37:06 +0200, andreas scherrer wrote:
>> For some reason I was under the impression that /usr/src/sys is not
>> being updated by freebsd-update if I remove "kernel" from the
>> "Components" directive in freebsd-update.conf. But I might be wrong (I
>> will check).
> 
> According to the documentation, /usr/src (and therefor the
> /usr/src/sys subtree) is part of the "src" component, not
> of "kernel", so it should be updated properly.

OK. I will check if my /usr/src(/sys) ever changes now. I too think it
should.

>> Maybe related to this: how does freebsd-update "know" what
>> sources/binaries to get when I don't use the "-r" switch? Does it rely
>> on /usr/src/sys/conf/newvers.sh?

That would still interest me (also see below).

> By following -RELEASE, freebsd-update will "apply _that_ snapshot
> of the source tree and the prebuild world and kernel at the
> revision when X.Y-RELEASE-pZ has been verified", sloppily said.
> So it basically doesn't matter what sources you have on your
> machine (or even if you have any sources) as long as you're not
> going to compile anything. But because this is a requirement in
> your specific setting, freebsd-update will take care of that by
> having the "src" component on its list.

So how would I "follow -RELEASE". Or how does freebsd-update what I want
to follow (see above)?
I don't want to, so this is an academic question...

And something else is bugging me: Is there a way I can contact "someone"
(Tom Rhodes?) about the outdated freebsd-update documentation
(concerning the custom kernel handling) in the Handbook ("FreeBSD
Update" [2])? Colin Percival's email is in the man page, would that be
the way to go? The Handbook states that Tom Rhodes wrote the
freebsd-update section but does not reveal an email address...


Kind regards
andreas

[1]
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html
[2]
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html