# Binaries or Source?



## dougs (Jan 11, 2013)

I have this one system running 9.0-RELEASE and I cannot determine whether it was installed/upgraded using binaries or was compiled from source. It has subversion installed and svn info /usr/src dumps info as follows:

```
aries-root@~/bin# svn info /usr/src
Path: /usr/src
Working Copy Root Path: /usr/src
URL: svn://svn0.us-west.freebsd.org/base/releng/9.0
Repository Root: svn://svn0.us-west.freebsd.org/base
Repository UUID: ccf9f872-aa2e-dd11-9fc8-001c23d0bc1f
Revision: 243630
Node Kind: directory
Schedule: normal
Last Changed Author: simon
Last Changed Rev: 243417
Last Changed Date: 2012-11-22 14:52:15 -0800 (Thu, 22 Nov 2012)

aries-root@~/bin#
```

but I do seem to recall going with binaries once I discovered that the ZFS configuration worked even with the binaries. But I can't be too sure.

What's the most accurate way to determine this?

~Doug


----------



## wblock@ (Jan 11, 2013)

Look at the output of uname -a.  It shows date and username.


----------



## dougs (Jan 11, 2013)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Look at the output of uname -a.  It shows date and username.




```
aries-root@~/bin# uname -a
FreeBSD aries.dawnsign.com 9.0-RELEASE-p4 FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE-p4 #0 r240684: Thu Sep 20 18:37:37 PDT 2012     root@aries.dawnsign.com:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/ARIES  i386
aries-root@~/bin#
```

So how do you know that it was updated viafreebsd-update or compiled? As root I can execute freebsd-update or compile. What does the date refer to? The day the system was last updated?

~Doug


----------



## wblock@ (Jan 12, 2013)

That's a custom kernel.  Note the compile date, the user name, and the kernel name.


----------



## dougs (Jan 12, 2013)

So it would be safe to say that by using freebsd-update, you end up *always* using the GENERIC kernel?


----------



## wblock@ (Jan 12, 2013)

I don't use freebsd-update(8), but I would guess yes.


----------



## Webhostbudd (Jan 12, 2013)

No, just turn off the kernel and world updates in /etc/freebsd-update.conf. You can make it so that freebsd-update only updates src.


----------

