Newbie questions about updating

[RW]

On Fri, 7 Sep 2007 12:16:32 -0400
Jerry McAllister <jerrymc at msu.edu> wrote:


> In general, the OS versions are managed so that anything that will
> run in one version of a main branch will run in another.  eg, if
> it will run in 6.1, it should run in 6.2 and 6.3.   But it may well
> not work in 7.xx because os some non-compatible change introduced
> in the new major branch level.   

Generally packages built on an older version of the OS will run on a
newer version. When one upgrades to 7x there will be a compat6x port
to supply the missing libraries. It's normally not essential to
upgrade ports after an OS upgrade, but it is advisable on a major
upgrade.

Problems are more likely to occur the other way around, there
are currently 6-stable packages the wont run on 6.2 because new
libraries have been ported into 6-stable.