TaoSecurity.com Exclusive: Keeping FreeBSD Applications Up-To-Date

I am happy to announce the publication at TaoSecurity.com of Keeping FreeBSD Applications Up-To-Date. This is the sequel to my article Keeping FreeBSD Up-To-Date. The new article takes the same case-based approach I used in the first paper.
The article's sections include:

  • Introduction

  • Installation Using Source Code

  • Installation Using the FreeBSD Ports Tree

  • Installation Using Precompiled Packages

  • Updating Applications Installed from Source Code

  • Updating Packages by Deletion and Addition

  • Updating the Ports Tree, Part 1

  • Manually Updating a Package Using the Ports Tree

  • Updating Packages with Portupgrade, Part 1

  • Updating Packages with Portupgrade, Part 2

  • Updating the Ports Tree, Part 2

  • My Common Package Update Process

  • Creating Packages on One System and Installing Them Elsewhere

  • Addressing Security Issues in Packages

  • Conclusion

  • Acknowledgements

  • References


Sections show commands to run, explanations of what they do, sample output, applications versions, and pros and cons of each upgrade method. Please send feedback to taosecurity at gmail dot com.

When I get a chance, I will test putting 'BATCH=YES' in /etc/make.conf to accept interactive defaults for all ports. I also want to test the ability of Portupgrade to update ports with vulnerabilities by using this option:

-m '-DDISABLE_VULNERABILITIES'

I thought this thread discussing people's /etc/make.conf entries was interesting.

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