On Tue, Feb 03, 2015 at 04:15:18 +0000, Cody Chamberlain
wrote:> freebsd friends,
Hi Cody.
> im a relatively new convert from debian linux and am starting to
> love freebsd more and more. the one thing i am in need of some
> advice is: what is the difference / best usage of freebsd-update
> and pkg to stay up to date?
Your question indicates that you have a misunderstanding of how
FreeBSD works, due to the fact that there are some concepts in
FreeBSD that do not have analogues in Linux. Principle among
these is the base system: the set of software that the FreeBSD
Project develops and provides with the install media that you get
whenever you install the system. The base system includes
everything the OS needs to build itself and the base of the ports
system (with a few extra things added, though that list is
thankfully shrinking as time goes on), and that's about it.
This is different from the Linux world, where everything is just
another package. Your kernel, your text editor, your X server: each
one is just another package with no special treatment. There are
some safeguards around removing and upgrading certain packages
(like the package manager) to prevent foot shooting, but that is
the extent to which things are treated specially in Linux.
freebsd-update updates the base system. This will generally be
security fixes and errata for core system functionality and
you'll definitely want to install these updates.
pkg will update the third party applications, like your X server
and your web server. You'll want to follow these updates as
well, of course, but they are not as fundamental as your kernel.
> from my debian world i am coming from, after running apt-get update
> i had categories of updates grouped by ?security? and ?upgrades? -
> there was also a distribution upgrade that was available?.
As said above, there is no distinction between security updates
and errata for the freebsd-updates tool (nor, indeed, for the
ports tree). Generally, one will want to stay as up to date as
possible, for a variety of reasons, so there isn't really a
technical reason for drawing a distinction (people like to draw
arbitrary political distinctions, but that always causes tech
debt and other problems IME).
> is running pkg update and pkg upgrade equivalent to debian?s apt-get
> update / install?
This question betrays the misunderstanding that I described
above. Insofar as (almost) everything in Debian is a third-party
package, yes, pkg upgrade will do the equivalent of apt-get
upgrade. However, there are parts of the system that are
required for basic functionality which apt-get will also upgrade.
For these packages on FreeBSD, you'll want the freebsd-update
tool.
> what does freebsd-update update? is there a delineation between
> just security updates and upgrades?
freebsd-update will work with the base system--those parts of the
OS developed, maintained, and released by the FreeBSD Project.
There is no delineation between security updates and errata. The
errata are quite conservative, especially if you are on a RELEASE
branch.
I would suggest you read the FreeBSD Handbook to further
understand these distinctions, and look at
http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/bsd4linux/01 as well,
especially the sections for the base system and the ports tree.
--
Chris Nehren
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