On 1/15/07, Patrick Useldinger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
My understanding is that OpenBSD version updates can only be done with binaries. Likewise, for additional application installation, packages i.e. binaries are favored over ports i.e. compiling from source.
Version up_grades_ (one release/version to another) are supported via binary upgrade. People attempting to upgrade via source end up breaking things. You're right about packages vs. ports being preferred, where possible. Why waste time and introduce potential for failure if you don't have to? A port build just results in a package anyway.
Why then, otoh, does following -stable involve compiling from source?
Because it works and happens sometimes too frequently to justify binary releases so often. Note that you can follow the directions in release(8) to produce your own distribution set for binary "updates" if you want; it's essentially treated as an upgrade although you can apply updates the same way (you just aren't moving from one version to another.)
I thought that the rationale for using binaries was security: everybody is guaranteed to use exactly the same binaries so there's no risk that for some reason, on one machine, the compile process would yield in a different result. Yet the same argument would be true for following -stable, especially as using the GENERIC kernel is the only supported configuration.
Statistically, the process doesn't yield different results. This is one benefit of a known, stable development environment shipping with the OS. Security is probably a weak argument there. One might argue that binary distribution updates mask security problems; when you apply updates and build from using source patches, you see what is going into your system. (OK, it could be a a weak argument. Whatever.)
So I guess I am missing something decisive here. Can anybody shed some light on _why_ there are 2 different ways to update?
Other than one is really an upgrade and the other is an update, so it's apples to oranges in that regard? (Note that there are 3rd-party binary update/patch programs for OpenBSD on the Internet. I'm not advocating them; note also that you're on your own if you choose to use them.) DS
