On Wed, Oct 22, 2014 at 02:23:11PM +0000, Joe Malcolm via smartos-discuss wrote:

> >No, the platform is not packaged so this would be difficult.  However
> >the platform engineers do a fantastic job at quickly fixing any
> >vulnerabilities in the platform, and there is a lot less software
> >installed compared to what is available through pkgsrc, so usually
> >upgrading to the latest SmartOS will suffice.
> 
> OK. Realizing that this may be something that Joyent charges money
> for, my application for this would be to know when I must upgrade to
> the latest SmartOS.

"Must" is really a subjective matter.  We do publish information about
major bugs in the platform for the benefit of our SDC customers, but you
can also watch github and this list and get much of the same
information.

I don't think using pkgsrc as a proxy for platform bug data makes sense.
The platform contains nothing from pkgsrc itself and virtually none of
the same software that it offers (to say nothing of different versions).
The final nail in the coffin is that the few third-party software
components in the platform are often used in limited ways, so many bugs
that may be present in that software cannot be triggered in the
platform, and when this occurs we often do not bother taking the risk
associated with upgrading them.  It's always a judgment call based on
understanding the bug and our use of the software.

You can upgrade the platform any time you're willing to reboot.  The
architecture of the system is such that the platform has no external
dependencies and is a sealed unit that can be replaced with any newer
version at any time.  So if you're worried about something, it shouldn't
hurt to upgrade.  If you want to go follow specific pieces of software
that worry you, I'd start by looking at the contents of illumos-extra.
That contains most of the third-party software the platform delivers.
There are also a few scattered components in illumos-joyent (from
illumos itself) but many of these have also been heavily modified from
their upstream source and may or may not have the same bugs you see
discussed across the Internet.


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