Hi Ed, Ed Gray wrote on Sun, Oct 11, 2020 at 07:21:32PM +0100:
> I'm still fairly new to openbsd and the idea of using ports > in general rather than binary packages. You are usually better off using packages than using ports, especially as a new user. Even as an experienced user doing lots of development and minor amounts of ports development, i use packages most of the time. In a nutshell, there are only three common reasons to compile a port yourself: * You want to fix bugs in the port or update it and submit patches. * Or you want to experiment with local changes to the port. * Or you want to do some kinds of testing that require compiling from source (many kinds of testing don't require that). For details, see https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html # about packages https://www.openbsd.org/faq/ports/ports.html # about ports The latter page says, at the very top, The ports tree is meant for advanced users. Everyone is encouraged to use the pre-compiled binary packages. If you have questions about the ports tree, it is assumed that you have read the manual pages and this FAQ, and that you are able to work with it. > Is it necessary to keep the ports tree updated if using a release version > of openbsd e.g. pulling the stable tree from CVS before building new > software? The -release ports tree is compatible with both the -release and the -stable base system of the same release. Updating the -release ports tree to become a -stable ports tree, or updating the relevant parts of it in the same way, may be useful if you want to re-build a specific package and a fix was committed to -stable for that specific port. But for the most common architectures, -stable packages are now routinely available on the mirrors in the directory /pub/OpenBSD/6.7/packages-stable/, so users rarely need the -stable ports tree. Yours, Ingo
