On Fri, Jan 23, 2004 at 05:12:36PM -0500, Francis Litterio wrote: > Aren't packages bound to a given base system version precisely to avoid > this kind of "upgrade creep"?
Packages aren't bound to a particular base system version. The ports tree and the base system are essentially developed independantly. A set of packages is produced concurrently with OS releases -- and extra attention is given to bug fixing and testing in the few weeks before that, to ensure that those packages work as well as possible. However, although there isn't any formal testing with other versions of the OS, it is generally the case that a package will work on any OS version with the same major version number. No guarrantees however, and your chances of success are lower with eg. the recent 5.x releases before 5-STABLE is branched, as there are still quite major changes going into the kernel and system libraries. Even if you have problems with installing packages, you can often succeed by installing from source, via the ports. Cheers, Matthew -- Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks Savill Way PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Marlow Tel: +44 1628 476614 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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