176 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
176 lines
7.5 KiB
Plaintext
<!-- $Id: current.sgml,v 1.5 1995/09/27 00:46:16 jmz Exp $ -->
|
|
<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
|
|
|
|
|
|
<chapt><heading>Staying current with FreeBSD<label id="current"></heading>
|
|
|
|
<p><em>Contributed by &a.jkh;.</em>
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
|
|
THE FREEBSD CURRENT POLICY
|
|
|
|
Last updated: $Date: 1995/09/27 00:46:16 $
|
|
|
|
This document attempts to explain the rationale behind FreeBSD-current,
|
|
what you should expect should you decide to run it, and states some
|
|
prerequisites for making sure the process goes as smoothly as possible.
|
|
-->
|
|
|
|
<sect><heading>What is FreeBSD-current?</heading>
|
|
|
|
<p>FreeBSD-current is, quite literally, nothing more than a daily snapshot of
|
|
the working sources for FreeBSD. These include work in progress, experimental
|
|
changes, and transitional mechanisms that may or may not be present in
|
|
the next official release of the software. While many of us compile
|
|
almost daily from FreeBSD-current sources, there are periods of time when
|
|
the sources are literally uncompilable. These problems are generally resolved
|
|
as expeditiously as possible, but whether or not FreeBSD-current sources bring
|
|
disaster or greatly desired functionality can literally be a matter of which
|
|
part of any given 24 hour period you grabbed them in!
|
|
|
|
Under certain circumstances we will sometimes make binaries for parts of
|
|
FreeBSD-current available, but only because we're interested in getting
|
|
something tested, not because we're in the business of providing binary
|
|
releases of current. If we don't offer, please don't ask! It takes far
|
|
too much time to do this as a general task.
|
|
|
|
<sect><heading>Who needs FreeBSD-current?</heading>
|
|
|
|
<p>FreeBSD-current is made generally available for 3 primary interest groups:
|
|
<enum>
|
|
<item> Members of the FreeBSD group who are actively working on one
|
|
part or another of the source tree and for whom keeping `current'
|
|
is an absolute requirement.
|
|
|
|
<item> Members of the FreeBSD group who are active ALPHA or BETA testers
|
|
and willing to spend time working through problems in order to
|
|
ensure that FreeBSD-current remains as sane as possible. These
|
|
are also people who wish to make topical suggestions on changes
|
|
and the general direction of FreeBSD.
|
|
|
|
<item> Peripheral members of the FreeBSD (or some other) group who merely
|
|
wish to keep an eye on things and use the current sources for
|
|
reference purposes (e.g. for <em>reading</em>, not running). These
|
|
people also make the occasional comment or contribute code.
|
|
</enum>
|
|
|
|
<sect><heading>What is FreeBSD-current <em>NOT</em>?</heading>
|
|
|
|
<p><enum>
|
|
<item> A fast-track to getting pre-release bits because there's something
|
|
you heard was pretty cool in there and you want to be the first on
|
|
your block to have it.
|
|
|
|
<item> A quick way of getting bug fixes.
|
|
|
|
<item> In any way ``officially supported'' by us.
|
|
|
|
We do our best to help people genuinely in one of the 3
|
|
``legitimate'' FreeBSD-current categories, but we simply <em>do not
|
|
have the time</em> to help every person who jumps into FreeBSD-current
|
|
with more enthusiasm than knowledge of how to deal with
|
|
experimental system software. This is not because we're mean and
|
|
nasty people who don't like helping people out (we wouldn't even be
|
|
doing FreeBSD if we were), it's literally because we can't answer
|
|
400 messages a day <em>and</em> actually work on FreeBSD! I'm sure if
|
|
given the choice between having us answer lots of questions or
|
|
continue to improve FreeBSD, most of you would vote for us
|
|
improving it.
|
|
</enum>
|
|
|
|
<sect><heading>Using FreeBSD-current</heading>
|
|
|
|
<p><enum> <item> Join the freebsd-current and cvs-all
|
|
mailing lists. This is not just a good idea, it's
|
|
<em>essential</em>. If you aren't on freebsd-current, you
|
|
won't read the comments that people are making about the
|
|
current state of the system and thus will end up stumbling
|
|
over a lot of problems that others have already found and
|
|
solved. Even more importantly, you will miss out on
|
|
potentially critical information (e.g. ``Yo, Everybody!
|
|
Before you rebuild <tt>/usr/src</tt>, you <em>must</em>
|
|
rebuild the kernel or your system will crash horribly!").
|
|
|
|
The cvs-all mailing list will allow you to see the commit log
|
|
entry for each change as it's made. This can also contain
|
|
important information, and will let you know what parts of
|
|
the system are being actively changed.
|
|
|
|
To join these lists, send mail to `majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG'
|
|
and say:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
subscribe current
|
|
subscribe cvs-all
|
|
</verb>
|
|
In the body of your message. Optionally, you can also say `help'
|
|
and Majordomo will send you full help on how to subscribe and
|
|
unsubscribe to the various other mailing lists we support.
|
|
|
|
<item> Grab the sources from ftp.FreeBSD.ORG. You can do this in
|
|
three ways:
|
|
|
|
<enum>
|
|
<item> Using the CTM facility described below. Unless you
|
|
have a good TCP/IP connection at a flat rate, this is
|
|
the way to do it.
|
|
|
|
<item> Use the CMU `sup' program (Software Update
|
|
Protocol), also described below.
|
|
This is the second most recommended method, since it allows
|
|
you to grab the entire collection once and then only what's
|
|
changed from then on. Many people run sup from cron
|
|
and keep their sources up-to-date automatically.
|
|
|
|
<item> Use ftp. The source tree for FreeBSD-current is always
|
|
"exported" on:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
ftp.FreeBSD.ORG:~ftp/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current
|
|
</verb>
|
|
We use `wu-ftpd' which allows compressed/tar'd grabbing
|
|
of whole trees. e.g. you see:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
usr.bin/lex
|
|
</verb>
|
|
You can do:
|
|
<verb>
|
|
ftp> cd usr.bin
|
|
ftp> get lex.tar.Z
|
|
</verb>
|
|
And it will get the whole directory for you as a compressed
|
|
tar file.
|
|
</enum>
|
|
|
|
<item> Essentially, if you need rapid on-demand access to the source and
|
|
communications bandwidth is not a consideration, use sup or ftp.
|
|
Otherwise, use CTM.
|
|
|
|
<item> If you're grabbing the sources to run, and not just look at,
|
|
then grab <em>all</em> of current, not just selected portions. The
|
|
reason for this is that various parts of the source depend on
|
|
updates elsewhere and trying to compile just a subset is almost
|
|
guaranteed to get you into trouble.
|
|
|
|
<item> Before compiling current, read the Makefile in /usr/src
|
|
carefully. You'll see one-time targets like `bootstrapld'
|
|
which <em><bf>must</bf></em> be run as part of the upgrading process. Reading
|
|
freebsd-hackers will keep you up-to-date on other bootstrapping
|
|
procedures that sometimes become necessary as we move towards
|
|
the next release.
|
|
|
|
<item> Be active! If you're running FreeBSD-current, we want to know
|
|
what you have to say about it, especially if you have suggestions
|
|
for enhancements or bug fixes. Suggestions with accompanying code
|
|
are received most enthusiastically!
|
|
</enum>
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
Thank you for taking the time to read this all the way through. We're
|
|
always very keen to remain "open" and share the fruits of our labor
|
|
with the widest possible audience, but sharing development sources has
|
|
always had certain pitfalls associated with it (which is why most
|
|
commercial organizations won't even consider it) and I want to make
|
|
sure that people at least come into this with their eyes open, and
|
|
don't make the leap unless they're good at working without a net!
|
|
-->
|