suggestion to change documentation

[Erich]

Hi,

there is some discussion ongoing about why people do not use FreeBSD. One of the reasons why people stop using FreeBSD is the ports tree respective how things have to be handled.

In my opinion, a small change in the handbook will make it much easier for beginners to use the ports tree in case they run into emergencies.

This section:

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvsup.html

states currently:

'Which version(s) of them do you want?

With CVSup, you can receive virtually any version of the sources that ever existed. That is possible because the cvsupd server works directly from the CVS repository, which contains all of the versions. You specify which one of them you want using the tag= and date= value fields.

Warning: Be very careful to specify any tag= fields correctly. Some tags are valid only for certain collections of files. If you specify an incorrect or misspelled tag, CVSup will delete files which you probably do not want deleted. In particular, use only tag=. for the ports-* collections.'

According to the discussion, the ports tree is tagged. I would suggest to mention this fact here together with the risks which are involved. 

Why?

Beginners fight with the system on many corners. One of the main corners is the ports tree. Going back to an older version which is known to work will help in many of these cases.

Going back will help them to get a working system again from which they can continue.

The tags for the ports tree are already mentioned in the kernel section. A link to this section will help the beginner.

There is a simple reason why I got this idea. I myself use this trick since many years when my ports tree gives me problems. I go back to the ports tree of the last release which does not have to be the ports tree of the installed FreeBSD. I then use packages and/or ports to come to that stage and restart upgrading afterwards.

What do you think about this change in the documentation?

Erich