How do I chase 5.*4* stable?

[Chris]

Hello,
Thank you *very* much for your informative reply. One question regarding
mergemaster. From my previous experiences with mergemaster, it (as you already
stated) merges current settings. However, in my case I'm looking to blow
away the entire disk(s) and then build a fresh (correctly working) system.
But want (for the sake of ease) to return to my previously installed ports
base and re-instate the previous userbase (including those that applications
create). How would I best use mergemaster to accomplish this? Or is even
the best choice for my intended purpose(s)?

Thank you again for your help.

--Chris

Quoting Bartosz Fabianowski <freebsd at chillt.de>:

>> resulted in a quite broken (and *un*stable) 5.5-PRERELEASE
>
> RELENG_5 is 5.x-STABLE *most* of the time. When a release is nearing, 
> the first few steps of preparation happen directly on the stable 
> branch, so it will become 5.y-PRERELEASE (and IIRC even 5.y-BETA1). 
> Then, when the new release gets its own branch, the stable branch 
> will become 5.y-STABLE.
>
>> 1)
>> How can I chase 5.4-STABLE? Can I just use: *default release=cvs 
>> tag=RELENG_5_4
>> in my stable-src-supfile and ports-supfile to accomplish this?
>
> In your stable-src-supfile - yes, this is correct. This will give you 
> the 5.4 errata branch. In your ports-supfile - don't do this. Ports 
> should always be checked out from HEAD. There is no such thing as a 
> ports errata branch for a particular old release in FreeBSD. Ports 
> from HEAD should work on all supported (and many unsupported older) 
> releases of FreeBSD.
>
>> 2)
>> After a fresh install from 5.4 CD's
>> cvsup with (stable) settings then a make/ install/ kernel &&
>> make (build)/ install world, can I simply copy /etc/passwd && /etc/group
>> *over* top of the one(s) created; there-by (safely) maintaining my current
>> userbase/ permissions?
>
> No. This is what mergemaster is for. It allows you to merge your 
> customized settings with whatever changes might have occurred in the 
> source tree.
>
> - Bartosz
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FreeBSD 5.5-PRERELEASE (SMP) MAIL04 Fri Feb 24 16:59:38 PST 2006
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