Re: Problem updating from 11.4 to 12.whatever

On Tue, Nov 23, 2021 at 12:47 PM Tomasz CEDRO <tomek@cedro.info> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 23, 2021, 10:04 Mehmet Erol Sanliturk  wrote:
>
>> (..)
>> I was using Fedora Linux version around 20 . A new release has been
>> published : Fedora 28 .
>> One action would be to install Fedora 28 from scratch  OR use upgrade ( or
>> update )  from ( let's say ) from 20 to 28 .
>> To attempt such an action in FreeBSD , perhaps , would be a disaster .
>
>
> I have been upgrading FreeBSD on my machines from 10.0 upwards with no
> problem.
>
> Recently I have upgraded ZFS based FreeBSD from 12.0 to 13.0 with no
> problem.
>
> Even switching from upgraded 13.0-RELEASE to 13-SABLE was not a problem
> (some local kernel patches that are not yet in a release).
>
> I noticed that only CURRENT is not suitable for production.
>
> Also switching from UFS to ZFS required drive/array reformat but that is
> kind of obvious.
>
> I avoid any other OS at all cost where only possible.
>
> :-)
>
> --
> CeDeROM, SQ7MHZ, http://www.tomek.cedro.info
>


My implied difference is not like 12 to 13 , but ,for example  , 5 to 13 (
a gap larger than 1 or two )  .
And my wish is also suggesting to use a policy to perform such upgrades .
An example about this  may be as follows :

Each release contains  a list of files .
Previous release checks which files are new with respect to installed files
, which ones will not be replaced or converted to the
new version ( this requires upward compatibility adhered to as much as
possible ) .
It installs new files into NEW directories . At the end , it checks the
integrity of the  new installation . When the new installation is
complete ( if there is failure , restarts to repair the failures without
wasting existing works ) , it starts to rename old directories into backup
names from least required toward the boot related directories . After
completion of renaming , it attempts to boot the new system .
If the new system boot is successful , it replaces the old system as a "use
if new system fails"  structure .

If it is necessary to use a new hard disk , it requests to attach a new
hard disk . It formats the new hard disk by using the format
facility of the new system . This requires a very careful upward
compatibility policy .
Or , it displays a message that "upgrade in place is not possible , then
use a new fresh install" without destroying all of the existing
files .

In the past , I was installing the  Novell .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novell
Novell

It was necessary to install the operating system into a hard disk with the
DATA areas into ANOTHER disk , i.e. ,
it was not possible to use a single disk for both . At the beginning , this
may have  seemed a meaningless requirement .
Now I am always using a different disk for data requirements ( disks are
not expensive . a smallest disk is sufficient to install an
operating system ) .  This application is allowing me  to replace any
version of an operating system with a new version of it . If the versions
are
near each other there is not any problem about data disks . Or use NFS to
copy files from the older system  into the new system .

It is possible to say that chosen policies may make some tasks very easy or
disastrous .
Choice belongs to us .


Mehmet Erol Sanliturk