Re: system updates

[Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost>]

Will Senn <will.senn%gmail.com@localhost> writes:

> Thanks for the explanation. So, I downloaded the USB installer for
> NetBSD 10.0 from the website. It's dated 3/28. I take it that this is
> the "formal release" (following
> https://www.netbsd.org/releases/release-map.html). When 10.1 comes out
> it will be on the "stable" or "maintenance branch" and 10.0.1, if it
> were to come out would be on the stable "security/critical"
> branch... As a new user, should I be tracking one of these branches
> and if so, how? The manual talks about upgrades, but that involves
> wholesale replacement of the filesets and not just updates... or am I
> reading it wrong.

One of the best things about NetBSD is how easy it is to do a full
build.  I keep a full checkout of src and xsrc on the netbsd-10 branch
and build it, using build.sh but with... the BUILD-NetBSD wrapper in
etcmanage.   You can also download these builds, but I often want some
little change for myself.

I have been doing this for years, and the netbsd-N branches have been
extremely stable.  I cannot recall a failure to work if they build to
completion and dimly remeber 1 or 2 build failures over about 20 years.
(Building -current is much riskier!)

My update process is just to unapck the sets over the running system.
Except etc and xetc, I unpack to /usr/netbsd-etc and then merge them to
the real etc carefully.  That and a reboot is all it takes.