Subject: Re: NetBSD 1.5
To: Bradley R. Smith <brad5903@pobox.com>
From: Frederick Bruckman <fb@enteract.com>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 02/27/2000 00:07:20
On Sat, 26 Feb 2000, Bradley R. Smith wrote:

> On 2/26/2000 at 12:49, fb@enteract.com (Frederick Bruckman) wrote:
> 
> > On Sat, 26 Feb 2000, dark3lf wrote:
> > 
> > > NetBSD 1.5 isnt quite ready for the mac68k platform correct?  When it is,
> > > will I have to completely reinstall all of the binary sets or just compile a
> > > new kernel?
> > 
> > When NetBSD-1.5 is released, on all ports simultaneously, it will be
> > fairly significant change from 1.4.x. So, yes, you would need to
> > update all the binary sets.
> 
> Does that apply to all binaries or just the ones closely
> associated
>with the kernel like ps? I was under the impression that you could
build a 1.4 kernel that was backward compatible with 1.3 binaries
(except for special cases like system utilities). If I understand the
kernel config options than GENERIC kernels are backward compatible all
the way back to 0.9. Or do those programs still need to be relinked?

No, most programs won't need to be relinked, as long as you keep the
necessary libs around. Since the current track already includes
changes to much of userland, including the toolchain, you could hardly
call your system 1.5 if you upgrade only the kernel. And add ipf/ipnat
to the list of old binaries that won't work with your hybrid system.

Packages and third party binaries, on the other hand, can be upgraded
at your leisure, as "NetBSD-1.5" implies nothing about them.

If you're tempted to ease into 1.5 with only the kernel, and you're
willing to live with ipf/ipnat/systat breakage, you might try a
current kernel out of the latest snapshot, which seems to be

ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/arch/mac68k/current-19991207/binary/kernel/