FreeBSD is under constant development between releases. Some people prefer to use the officially released versions, while others prefer to keep in sync with the latest developments. However, even official releases are often updated with security and other critical fixes. Regardless of the version used, FreeBSD provides all the necessary tools to keep the system updated, and allows for easy upgrades between versions. This chapter describes how to track the development system and the basic tools for keeping a FreeBSD system up-to-date.
After reading this chapter, you will know:
How to keep a FreeBSD system up-to-date with freebsd-update or Subversion.
How to compare the state of an installed system against a known pristine copy.
How to keep the installed documentation up-to-date with Subversion or documentation ports.
The difference between the two development branches: FreeBSD-STABLE and FreeBSD-CURRENT.
How to rebuild and reinstall the entire base system.
Before reading this chapter, you should:
Properly set up the network connection (Chapter 31, Advanced Networking).
Know how to install additional third-party software (Chapter 4, Installing Applications: Packages and Ports).
Throughout this chapter, svn is used to
obtain and update FreeBSD sources. To use it, first install the
devel/subversion port or
package.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.