On Thursday 27 December 2007 10:46:26 Henning Brauer wrote:
quoted text
> * STeve Andre' <andres@msu.edu> [2007-12-27 16:42]:
> > On Thursday 27 December 2007 10:07:00 Henning Brauer wrote:
> > > * STeve Andre' <andres@msu.edu> [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.

Thats my point: running -current means building from source and
thus being affected.