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people at the FTP directory. It's very often the list is out of date and the list doesn't bring much useful information which can't quickly be found by just looking in the FTP directories. - Note that snapshots are currently done for FreeBSD 6, 7, and 8. Discussed with: kensmith
107 lines
4.7 KiB
Text
107 lines
4.7 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional-Based Extension//EN" [
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<!ENTITY base CDATA "..">
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<!ENTITY date "$FreeBSD: www/en/snapshots/index.sgml,v 1.42 2007/12/09 05:48:49 dougb Exp $">
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<!ENTITY title "FreeBSD Snapshot Releases">
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<!ENTITY % navinclude.download "INCLUDE">
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<!ENTITY % developers SYSTEM "../developers.sgml"> %developers;
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<!ENTITY url.snapshots "ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots">
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]>
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<!-- $FreeBSD: www/en/snapshots/index.sgml,v 1.42 2007/12/09 05:48:49 dougb Exp $ -->
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<html>
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&header;
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<h2>What Are Snapshots?</h2>
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<p>As part of an ongoing effort to improve the overall release process
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<em>before</em> a release actually slips out the door with problems,
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we are now periodically producing interim test releases called
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<em>snapshots</em>.
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These snapshots will be very similar to full releases,
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except that they might not include all the bits included in a
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full release (such as packages and updated documentation).</p>
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<h2>Getting Snapshots</h2>
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<p>The latest snapshots made available can be found on the FreeBSD
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FTP mirrors at the address <a
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href="&url.snapshots;">&url.snapshots;</a>. They can also be
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found in the same directory on other FTP
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<a href="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">mirror
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sites</a>.</p>
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<p>Currently the snapshots of
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<a href="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#CURRENT">8-CURRENT</a>,
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<a href="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#STABLE">7-STABLE</a>,
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and
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<a href="&base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html#STABLE">6-STABLE</a>
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are released monthly in directories whose URLs have the format
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<tt>&url.snapshots;/<year><month>/</tt>
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where <tt><year></tt> is the four-digit year and
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<tt><month></tt> is the two-digit month in which the snapshot was released.
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For each supported platform, the snapshot includes ISO images of
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the <tt>bootonly</tt>,
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<tt>disc1</tt>, and <tt>disc2</tt> disks (plus
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the separate <tt>livefs</tt> disk on platforms where this is
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applicable).
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Each snapshot directory might contain a <tt>RELNOTES.TXT</tt>
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file which outlines the changes for the particular snapshot.</p>
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<h2>Things You Might Want to Know</h2>
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<p>In particular, before getting and installing a snapshot release,
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be aware of following:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>The snapshots are primarily for
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testing purposes and not fully tested compared to the releases.
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They may include experimental or degraded features that
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can corrupt your existing system.</li>
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<li>The major release number will not be changed in the
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main distribution for each snapshot.
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It will <em>only</em> be changed on the boot floppies
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so that you know when the snapshot was made.
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These are <em>not</em> releases, these are <em>snapshots</em>,
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and it is important that this distinction be preserved.
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Although people can and will, of course, refer to snapshots
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by date in mail or netnews, do not confuse them.</li>
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<li>Snapshots might not include package sets, but will generally
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include a ports tree.</li>
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<li>Finally, we will not necessarily update the documentation.
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For example, <tt>README</tt> may still refer
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to a previous release. This is because that is much less important
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than getting the real bug fixes and new features out for testing.
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Please do not send a bug report about the documentation.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Your feedback on these snapshots is, of course, greatly welcome.
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They are not just for our benefit - those who are coming to rely
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on FreeBSD for mission critical applications should welcome
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a chance to get at more updated bits in a structured fashion.
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You can also use these snapshots as tangible evidence that your
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feedback is getting incorporated and that you (hopefully) will not have
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any unpleasant surprises in the next release.
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On the other hand, if you do send us hate mail next release
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and it turns out that you never even tried the snapshots,
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well, it cuts both ways!</p>
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<h2>Other Resources</h2>
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<p>Here are some related resources. Note that they are managed by
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people other than the FreeBSD Release Engineering Team.
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These sites provide FreeBSD snapshots in a form of "live filesystem"
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and bootable ISO images on a daily basis.
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For details, visit the following links and contact them directly
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if you have any questions.</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="http://snapshots.us.FreeBSD.org/">FreeBSD snapshots by &a.brd; (brd@)</a>.</li>
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</ul>
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&footer;
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</body>
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</html>
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