8.1 -> 8.3

[Robert Bonomi]

> From owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org  Sat Sep 15 11:58:42 2012
> To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> From: Michael Powell <nightrecon at hotmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2012 12:56:49 -0400
> Subject: Re: 8.1 -> 8.3
>
> Laszlo Danielisz wrote:
>
> > Hey Guys,
> > 
> > If I want to upgrade from 8.1-RELEASE-p11 to 8.3 do I need to also update
> > installed packages? One more thing: by when has 8.3 release maintenance?
> > Maybe I'm blind but I haven't found the date on freebsd.org
> > 
>
> When updating within a major release version such as 8.1 to 8.x the ABI is 
> stable and remains the same so it is not necessary to update the third party 
> packages/ports. 

Note: this is _generally_ accurate.   There are *rare* exceptions -- things
that have to be compiled against against the actual kernel in use, because
they go rummaging through kernel internal data structures.

Historically, lsof wa one such program.

Such programs tended to have *LOUD* caveats in the build documentation,
and run-time checks for kernel version consistency. 

In 30+ years as a sysadmin, I think I've only encoundered abouut _four_
such programs. 


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