Hi Siju, > I 'll stop installing compilers
Still a bad idea IMHO, but this has been discussed to death. > when OpenBSD incorporates binary system updates ;-) Please, don't bug the developers about that. They have explained several times why their time is better put elsewhere. Please also note that the idea of binary updates is slightly against the OpenBSD philosophy (at least as i see it). Neither downloading patches, making and installing them, nor cvs-updating /usr/src to stable, making and installing the relevant parts, nor making release is complicated, error-prone or time consuming. So keep the system simple, avoid unnecessary complexity - and if you learn something about how the system works while cd'ing around the source tree and watching make and make install, all the better. > no CVS check outs. no compiling just something like. In my eyes, those are very little advantages - but that may be a matter of taste, and if you maintain only one workstation and no server, it might be relevant in terms of time and skill required. In my eyes, binary patches have different merits: tar -xpzf base??.tgz -C / may take time on very slow hardware, transferring binary patches is quicker than transferring release sets over slow links, building a binary patch is quicker than building a release on a slow architecture and so on... Those are also small advantages, but they may at times come in handy. > sys_update ftp://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/3.9/amd64/patches All that said, building a binary patching system is *not* a daunting task. You need not be a kernel developer to do that. In fact, binpatch by Gerardo Santana is in a more or less useable state, although we would need to put a bit more work into it in order to accomplish what you suggest. > :-) A dream come true! If you really mean that, do it - but without disturbing the developers. Download the binpatch code from Sourceforge, try it out, learn to use it. Contact me off-list for my current private version. Compare it to Gerardo's original, chose the one you like better and understand it (every single line). It is not complicated. After that, contact Gerardo in private email to discuss CVS access. If you cannot find his current address, contact me in private email. The task itself is feasible if you have several years of experience using UNIX systems and know OpenBSD reasonably well on a sysadmin level. Actually, i rewrote most of the binpatch code for my personal use, with the main goal to simplify it and clean it up in order to make it easier to maintain and to assure correctness. Gerardo incorporated part of my changes into his Sourceforge version, but AFAIK he lacked the time to check my second (and larger) patch. To get this project really going, two things are required: - The cleanup should be completed. I would certainly find the time to do that if somebody else would commit himself to the following: - There must be regular maintenance, i.e. the project must be regularly and correctly adapted to new releases and new patches - without any noticeable delays. This is the main challenge; it includes continuous, thorough testing. Obviously, neither Gerardo no me can spare the required time to do regular maintenance properly. For that reason, i shall now shut up. It would be better to first do the work and than announce what has been done than to rant away about what could be done. Yours, Ingo
