getting the running patch level

[Brett Glass]

Yes, uname -v will work. Unfortunately, it has an annoying side effect. If one tries
to use the "sysinstall" program to install binary packages, it will fail when
a system patched by freebsd-update tries to access the FTP server, because the FTP 
server doesn't know about patch levels.

One must MANUALLY go to the Options screen and remove the patch level
(-p3, -p4 or whatever) from the version string before one can install a binary
package.

I realize that sysinstall is deprecated in favor of the new installer, but
the new installer doesn't have the ability to install binary packages.
Until and unless there's a convenient menu-based installer for binary
packages, would it be possible to fix this glitch?

--Brett Glass

At 09:43 AM 8/9/2012, Henrik Andersen wrote:
 
>Hi all,
>
>You can find the current patch level in /usr/src/sys/conf/newvers.sh ex:
>  TYPE="FreeBSD"
>  REVISION="8.3"
>  BRANCH="RELEASE-p4"
>
>uname -v on the same server:
>FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE #0: Mon Apr 9 21:23:18 UTC 2012
>root at mason.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
>
>If I read the handbook correctly this should always be true on systems
>using freebsd-update.
>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html
>
>Regards,
>Henrik