FreeBSD long term support (Post 11.0)

Steve O'Hara-Smith steve at sohara.org
Sun Apr 2 20:46:04 UTC 2017


On Sun, 2 Apr 2017 20:34:41 +0100
Paul Macdonald <paul at ifdnrg.com> wrote:

> 
> Am i correct in thinking that for long term support its now more 
> advisable to install STABLE as opposed to RELEASE builds?
> 
> i.e From: https://www.freebsd.org/security/

	I'd say release builds are still the best option for production but
you should plan on upgrading to the next point release within three months
of it becoming possible. Stable is still a development branch.

> "Under the new support model, each major version's stable branch is 
> explicitly supported for 5 years, while each individual point release is 
> only supported for three months after the next point release."

	That makes me wonder what happens to the last point release to a
major version, presumably support lasts until five years after the .0
release.

> We've traditionally always installed REL builds, but for example all our 
> 11.0-REL installs look to be EOL'd within 2 months
> 
> /*WARNING: FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p8 is approaching its End-of-Life date.*//
> //It is strongly recommended that you upgrade to a newer release within 
> the next 2 months.//

	That seems wrong, 11.1 is not out yet so the three months shouldn't
have started counting.

> Additionally is there still no way to switch from STABLE->REL, or 
> REL->STABLE via freebsd-update?

	I wouldn't expect there to be one, STABLE is a moving target with
frequent commits.

-- 
Steve O'Hara-Smith <steve at sohara.org>


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