Bug 183246 - FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE Installation Instructions don't properly warn about the need to update all ports
Summary: FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE Installation Instructions don't properly warn about the n...
Status: Closed Overcome By Events
Alias: None
Product: Documentation
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Books & Articles (show other bugs)
Version: Latest
Hardware: Any Any
: Normal Affects Only Me
Assignee: freebsd-doc (Nobody)
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2013-10-23 19:50 UTC by slasiewski
Modified: 2020-02-26 19:23 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

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Description slasiewski 2013-10-23 19:50:00 UTC
Summary:

The "FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE Installation Instructions" at [1] suggests that I shouldn't need to update FreeBSD ports. However when I run `freebsd-update`, freebsd-update says that I *should* update all ports, which is an unwelcome surprise at this point in my maintenance window.

This conflict between the documentation and the reality needs to be resolved. I don't know if the proper fix is to update the documentation, fix freebsd-update or what. I'll leave that to you.

Details:

The following problem has been repeated on several systems, running everything from FreeBSD 8.0 to FreeBSD 9.2. For the purpose of this ticket I am using a FreeBSD 8.3 system.

I am updating from FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE to 8.4-RELEASE, following the "FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE Installation Instructions" at [1]. 

According to the instructions, since I am not running FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE or earlier, I won't be prompted to rebuild all third-party applications on my system. The instructions say:

    At this point, users of systems being upgraded from FreeBSD 7.4-RELEASE or
    earlier will be prompted by freebsd-update to rebuild all third-party
    applications (e.g., ports installed from the ports tree) due to updates in
    system libraries.


However, in reality, `freebsd-update` tells me that I should now "rebuild all installed 3rd party software (e.g., programs installed from the ports tree)". I wasn't prepared to do this and it's a little late in the process for FreeBSD to be telling me that I need to compile a bunch of software.

This conflict between the documentation and the reality needs to be resolved. I don't know if the proper fix is to update the documentation, fix freebsd-update or what.


```
[root@node1 ~]# uname -a
FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p3 #0: Tue Jun 12 00:39:29 UTC 2012     root@amd64-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
[root@node1 ~]# freebsd-update upgrade -r 8.4-RELEASE
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 5 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 8.3-RELEASE from update2.freebsd.org... done.
..
..
.. (Merge configuration files, etc)
..
..
[root@node1 ~]# freebsd-update install
Installing updates...
Kernel updates have been installed.  Please reboot and run
"/usr/sbin/freebsd-update install" again to finish installing updates.
[root@node1 ~]# shutdown -r now
Connection to node1.example.org closed by remote host.
Connection to node1.example.org closed.

# and then "After rebooting, freebsd-update(8) needs to be run again to install the new userland components:"

node1# /usr/sbin/freebsd-update install
Installing updates...
Completing this upgrade requires removing old shared object files.
Please rebuild all installed 3rd party software (e.g., programs
installed from the ports tree) and then run "/usr/sbin/freebsd-update install"
again to finish installing updates.
node1#
```


At this point I'm placed in the uncomfortable position-- do I press forward with upgrading all ports on the system and risk exceeding the time allowed by our maintenance window (Upgrading FreeBSD ports can easily take a hours, and introduces changes that we weren't expecting), do I roll back and declare my system maintenance a failure, leave my system hanging in this in-between state while I schedule a second maintenance window to do what `freebsd-update` tells me to do, ignore the warning, etc?



[1] http://www.freebsd.org/releases/8.4R/installation.html

How-To-Repeat: 1. Have a system running 8.3-RELEASE
2. Run `freebsd-update upgrade -r 8.4-RELEASE`
Comment 1 Eitan Adler freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2017-12-31 07:58:33 UTC
For bugs matching the following criteria:

Status: In Progress Changed: (is less than) 2014-06-01

Reset to default assignee and clear in-progress tags.

Mail being skipped
Comment 2 Sergio Carlavilla Delgado freebsd_committer freebsd_triage 2020-02-26 19:23:06 UTC
FreeBSD 8.4 it's unsupported.