how to read security advisories

[Joe]

Thank you for pointing me at some relevant docs.

I'd like to point out that neither of these resources are of much help for someone trying to figure out what the -p means, though.

The first is only something you'd come across if you already knew what the -p meant (try searching -p on the internet.  Or FreeBSD's site.  Or even in the single-page HTML view of the handbook).

The second would actually confuse me if I hadn't already been definitively told what the -p was, as the example given is "4.6.2-RELEASE" instead of "4.6-RELEASE-p2".

I searched both on google and on FreeBSD's site for:
 - freebsd release
 - freebsd version string
 - freebsd release p modifier
 - freebsd release tags
 - freebsd security advisory release naming

The last one got me the closest, but still didn't actually inform me that the -p extension was for patch level, or how to check what patch level I had (which is pretty important if you're trying to figure out if a security advisory applies to a particular system or not). 

I tried following through on that, but searching for "security branch" or "security branch tags" got me to http://www.freebsd.org/releng/ which at the bottom points me to http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/releng/index.html which looks like it is just about the release process, not naming, and has a very loud warning at the top about how badly out of date it is.

I'm not trying to get in anyone's face or ruffle any feathers, so much as to let you know that I spent longer than I thought was reasonable looking for a definitive answer for this question, and I think it both could and should be made more obvious in the FreeBSD documentation.  I think good places for this would be in the second reference you gave me (release-branches.html) and in the "how to read security advisories" document.

I do very much appreciate both the responses I've gotten and speed at which I got them.  I am also very appreciative of all the documentation in general!

Thanks,

-Joe

On February 25, 2014 at 6:27:13 PM, Lowell Gilbert (freebsd-lists at be-well.ilk.org) wrote:

Joe <j.harman at f5.com> writes:  

> I understand what 5.1-RELEASE means, but I cannot find references for what the tailing "-p6" means.  

Try the note at the end of  
http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading-freebsdupdate.html#freebsdupdate-security-patches  
or the last paragraph in  
http://www5.us.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/dev-model/release-branches.html