Updating from 11.3-stable to 12.1-stable?

[Bob Willcox]

On Fri, May 01, 2020 at 03:42:06AM -0500, Scott Bennett wrote:

...

> 
>      You may not get bitten often, but the probability is that you will eventually
> be chewed on badly if you do things in an unsafe manner long enough.

Perhaps, but I have lost count of the number of times that I have updated my
personal systems (these are all just my home personal systems) over the past
decades with a similar procedure w/o any issues at all. But I'm certain it's
been hundreds of times. I have 10 FreeBSD systems here at the house that I run
24/7 and update each of them about every 3 months or less. Updating to a new
release isn't so frequent, though this certainly isn't the first time I've
done that.

I stopped following the detailed steps that you refer to back in the late '90s
when I discovered that the update process was quicker and worked reliably (for
me) doing it as I do. Though I can get to the console on all of my systems if
needed, I normally don't need to and it is significantly more convenient to
simply access all of my systems from my one FreeBSD workstation via my local
network. Consequently I avoid booting into single user mode with them unless
there is a real need to.

These systems are important to me (some more than others, as a number of them
are test systems), but they aren't "bet your business" critical or something
that will directly impact others should they be down for awhile while I am
recovering from something that went wrong. Also, the important systems all have
backups should one be down.

> 
> > doubt that there are risks, just updating a system carries some pretty significant
> > risks.
> >
> > Guess I sorry I said anything about this...didn't mean to get people riled up.
> >
>      AFAIK, nobody here on the list was.  Your posting your procedure allowed others
> to fill in the gaps in your understanding and possibly do the same for other users
> reading the list or looking in the list archives.  This has been a recurring issue
> on this and other lists for many years.  There is so much information in the various
> pieces of documentation--FreeBSD is a *big* set of software--that nobody can be
> expected to read and notice every detail before they start using the system.
>      Best of luck.  I still don't know how I'm going to get from stable/11 to
> stable/12, given that stable/12 fails to build on my stable/11 system. :-(

Well, I didn't have any problem with building 12.1-stable on my 11.3-stable
system during the process...fortunately. I was concerned that that was the most
likely step that would give me trouble.

Oh well, it's been an interesting discussion but I think I'll bow out of it now
and probably just keep plugging along as I have been for years...  :)

Bob

-- 
Bob Willcox    | It's possible that the whole purpose of your life is to
bob at immure.com | serve as a warning to others.
Austin, TX     |