# upgrade path to 9.1 from 9.1RC2



## punt (Oct 29, 2012)

I am interested in trying out 9.1RC2.  I normally just use the releases, but being so close to 9.1, I thought I might just go with 9.1 RC2 (as this isn't for production or anything).  I was curious however, when 9.1 is released, is there an upgrade option to 9.1 release from an RC2, or will I have to do a complete reinstall.


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## francis (Oct 29, 2012)

Hi *punt*. There is a simple way to do update - it is called freebsd-update(8)[1] and provides binary updates to FreeBSD, but remember "(...) e.g., FreeBSD 7.3-RELEASE and FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE, but not FreeBSD 6.3-STABLE or FreeBSD 9.0-CURRENT. (...)". So you need to have a GENERIC (which is default) kernel. You can also apply security updates with this utility. 
You should read this; FreeBSD Update (e.g. Chapter 25 Updating and Upgrading FreeBSD) and maybe freebsd-update error just in the case when during update process, You will see similar error "The update metadata is correctly signed, but failed an integrity check". Here You will find FreeBSD 9.1 Release Process and Release Status. The release builds will/should begin about a week after RC3.

An example of update method to RC2 or to the official RELEASE (of course, you can not forget other steps, like for example reboot etc.);

`#  freebsd-update upgrade -r 9.1-RC2 [i]or[/i] RELEASE`

Best regards!


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## wblock@ (Oct 30, 2012)

Yes, you can certainly upgrade from -RC2 to -RELEASE.  But -RC2 is just -STABLE, and -STABLE is generally more reliable (IME) than full releases of other operating systems.


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## AlexJ (Oct 30, 2012)

francis said:
			
		

> There is a simple way to do update - it is called freebsd-update(8)[1]



Be careful with freebsd-update(8).
Last Colin's attention to his child was an year ago 
It looks like it isn't maintained as it should. PRs related to freebsd-update(8)
Two years old PRs still isn't closed, even those ones that marked as a serious.
From other side, PR as PR 173180, PR 172086, PR 172086 is marked as "low" and even unassigned yet. I, personally couldn't call PR 173180 as "non-critical"


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