Questions about freebsd-update

[Polytropon]

On Fri, 10 Jul 2015 17:51:46 -0400, Quartz wrote:
> >>>>> The tools involved here are already part of the base system (except
> >>>>> they got manually removed, which renders the OS somehow incomplete).
> >>>>> A system installation typically uses compiler, assembler, linker,
> >>>>> installer, and make, which are all contained in the base distribution
> >>>>> of the OS.
> >>>>
> >>>> Wait.... isn't all the build stuff part of the 'src' option during
> >>>> install?
> >>>
> >>> No. The "src" distribution contains the sources which will
> >>> be available in the /usr/src subtree.
> >>>
> >>>> If you unselect that, how does make/install apply patches if
> >>>> the files it's patching aren't there?
> >>>
> >>> It doesn't do that, but the tools make, install, and patch
> >>> themselves will be available.
> >>
> >> I understand that the utils themselves are still installed regardless,
> >> but in order for the 'patch' command to have something to patch against,
> >> doesn't 'src' have to be installed also?
> >
> > Yes, /usr/src _has to be_ present - either by installing src.txz,
> > as a result of freebsd-update's component src, or via SVN checkout.
> > The process then involves building from source of course. This is
> > the most transparent way to deal with updates.
> >
> 
> I'm still confused here.
> 
> I was under the impression that if I ever wanted to be able to update 
> the system via patches, I had to leave the 'src' option selected during 
> install. Are you saying that is or is not true?

It's important that you have /usr/src; _how_ you get it is
not important. During installation, src.txz will be uncompressed,
that's _one_ way to do it. SVN checkout is another. And you
can also use freebsd-update to obtain the "src" component.
You only need the source tree if you're going to apply patches
to the source and then recompile the system; the binary update
method does not require it - but it _can_ be used to keep your
local source tree current.


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