* STeve Andre' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2007-12-27 16:42]: > On Thursday 27 December 2007 10:07:00 Henning Brauer wrote: > > * STeve Andre' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2007-12-27 15:43]: > > > On Thursday 27 December 2007 09:17:37 new_guy wrote: > > > > I would like to install OpenBSD *once* and keep it patched and secured > > > > for many years there after (5 - 7 years) in a production environment. > > > > Would it be feasible to get a snapshot today and follow -current for > > > > many years w/o having to reinstall? Basically, this approach would skip > > > > -stable and -release and always be -current. I understand the > > > > implications of being current and that things might change and break > > > > and may need re-configuring on occasion. I'm OK with that... I just > > > > don't want to reinstall a -release every year... although I'll still > > > > buy CDs as they are released to support the project. > > > > that will work fine as long as you keep an eye on current.html and > > maybe source-changes, it is what many of us do. > > > > > There are two problems with what you are talking about. The first is > > > that by its vary nature -current is a moving target, and there could be > > > a time when upgrading to the latest -current for a security fix might > > > introduce some new feature which you don't want. > > > > why wouldn't you want a new feature? > > we're being extremely careful to not break existing behaviour wherever > > possible. of course, that is not always possible, but exceptions are > > rare and well documented. > > I didn't express that well enough, I guess. How about a change, such as > disks formerly showing up as wd but now sd? By problem, I mean > something that has to be dealt with, not just insurmountable ones.
that is one of those rare changes, and it is well documented. > > > The second problem are flag days, when something has changed such > > > that you almost certainly want to reinstall the OS. The move from > > > a.out to ELF binary format is a good example of that. > > > > ah yeah, and that happens every second week. > > reality check: how often does that happen really? > > the last "real" flag day on i386 was the a.out -> ELF move. > > When was that? 3.3 I think. almost 5 years ago. > > Perhaps I'm wrong here, but I thought about every other release > there was a change that was a flag day. nope. we sometimes have mini-flagdays. they usually only affect people building from source. -- Henning Brauer, [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] BS Web Services, http://bsws.de Full-Service ISP - Secure Hosting, Mail and DNS Services Dedicated Servers, Rootservers, Application Hosting - Hamburg & Amsterdam
