On Sun, Mar 14, 2004 at 05:37:56PM +0100, Kai Grossjohann wrote: > I wonder if this could be made easier. I'd be surprised if there > wasn't a method of doing binary upgrades already. For example, if we > decided to track releases, would that enable us to do binary upgrades > using sysinstall, say? I vaguely remember having seen an upgrade > option in there...
http://www.daemonology.net/freebsd-update It's still in development, so it hasn't been adopted yet as an official FreeBSD thing, but that surely is just a matter of time. Works exceedingly well, and because of Colin Percival's binary diff tool, it's really very light weight in the bandwidth usage stakes. It's available from ports, of course: security/freebsd-update The 'binary upgrade' option in sysinstall is a different thing: it's essentially a mechanism for wiping and replacing your current system with that release version, backing up various important config files as it does so. You still need to repopulate your /etc directory by merging the updated default contents with the saved versions, and it's generally not as smooth to do as the more usual means of {build,install} {world,kernel} and running mergemaster. (Unless you're upgrading over a large number of versions or across a major version number change). 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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