version 6!

[John Nielsen]

After realizing how long I made this little explanation, I decided it might 
be helpful to someone if I made it available on the freebsd-questions 
mailing list.  List: take the following for what it's worth.

On Tuesday 13 December 2005 07:00 pm, ntkonn wrote:
> Crap amighty, I just upgraded FreeBSD.  When did they
> go to 6?

Yes, 6.  You might want to consider subscribing to the freebsd-announce 
mailing list (http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-announce).

Also, the release of FreeBSD 6.0 does not mean you are running an outdated 
version of FreeBSD (yet).  The 5.x branch is basically in "maintenance" 
mode, but a 5.5 release is planned.  I doubt that 5.x will be retired 
before 6.1 has been out for a while.

> Are you running 6?  Anything in it make it 
> worth the trouble to upgrade?  Should I upgrade just
> so I don't get too far behind?

FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE breaks the mold for a "dot nought" release in that it is 
both relatively painless to upgrade and quite stable to run.  Take a look 
at http://www.freebsd.org/releases/, and pay particular attention to the 
announcement and release notes for 6.0.

As for reasons to upgrade, you can determine that yourself from the release 
notes, etc., but in my view there's no good reason not to.  Not lagging 
behind is also a good way to go in general.  The best (read: 
non-adventurous) way to do that is to follow releases, or possibly by 
tracking -STABLE.  (Releases are merely extra-well-tested, nicely packaged 
snapshots of the -STABLE branch of development.)  (If you're curious, the 
"adventurous" way to stay current is to track -CURRENT.  All new (and 
possibly untested) development happens in -CURRENT, and is backported to 
-STABLE only if it doesn't break compatibility and after it has been tested 
for a set period of time.)  See also 
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html 
(and the rest of chapter 20 of the handbook).

As I alluded to in my prior e-mail, I am running 6-STABLE both at home and 
at work with no problems.  6.0-RELEASE is also a good modern-but-not-scary 
candidate.

> uname -a produces:
>
> FreeBSD asus.konneker 5.4-STABLE FreeBSD 5.4-STABLE
> #0: Wed Nov  2 19:13:15 EST 2005
> neal at asus.konneker:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386

That means you're running 5-STABLE from a little over a month ago.  The gap 
between 5 and 6 is pretty narrow at this point, but it will probably widen 
with time (little if any new development is making its way into 5, since 6 
is now "stable").  You can do one of four things (actually 5, but the 5th 
is not recommended):

1) Not upgrade your system.  Not recommended for long-term use, but not 
necessarily a bad thing at any given time.  Plan on doing one of the other 
options, but use this one until it's convenient to upgrade.

2) Continue tracking 5-STABLE.  You could update your sources to the latest 
in the 5.x branch, using cvsup and a src supfile with the RELENG_5 tag.  
Rebuilding your "world" and kernel at that point would give you a 5-STABLE 
with today's date.  This option is better than (1) above, since it will 
incorporate security and other critical fixes, but still doesn't get you 
very far in terms of new functionality or staying up-to-date.  This option 
could also be a useful stepping-stone prior to upgrading to 6, but since 
your current system is very close to this already it's not strictly 
necessary.  If you wait a while to upgrade to 6, then you will definitely 
want to upgrade to the most current 5-STABLE beforehand.

3) Upgrade to 6.0-RELEASE.  This is most easily done by changing the tag in 
your src supfile to RELENG_6_0, updating your sources, and rebuilding world 
and kernel.  You will likely also need to rebuild/reinstall most or all of 
your ports to reflect new versions of the system libraries (this step is 
only typical of upgrades across major release numbers (like 5 to 6) and is 
not necessary for minor release upgrades (like 6.0 to 6.1).  This is a 
strong option, since it gives you a well-tested release and keeps you from 
needing to do a major version upgrade for the entire lifecycle of FreeBSD 
6.x.  Even if you go with (4) below, you should do this first.

4) Upgrade to 6-STABLE.  To do this you would change the tag in your src 
supfile to RELENG_6.  The main advantage of this option is that you can do 
many incremental updates.  This allows you to get new features without 
waiting for the next release, and also lets you deal with potential bumps 
in the upgrade path in smaller doses.  There is the added risk (compared to 
(3) of encountering bugs or other hurdles that might not show up in a 
release, but in my experience that risk is minimal.

5) (Listed for completeness only.  Typically only experienced (and/or 
brave/benevolent/eager, etc.) users wishing to be actively engaged in the 
development and testing process should do this.) Upgrade to 7-CURRENT.  You 
would do this by changing the tag in your src supfile to "." (just a 
period, without the quotes), and rebuilding your kernel and world.  For 
best results, upgrade to the latest -STABLE (as in (4) first.  This option 
gives you the latest bleeding-edge version of FreeBSD, and also (by 
default, at least) adds a number of debugging features to the kernel and 
other parts of the system.  So while technically you can get new features 
this way before they make it into -STABLE, you also run a much higher risk 
of encountering bugs.  Additionally, the debugging options have a 
significant negative impact on system performance.

IN ALL CASES, you should review /usr/src/UPDATING after updating your 
sources but before installing the new system.  Caveats and changes 
requiring your attention will appear in this file.

JN