# Installing FreeBSD 9 source



## wblock@ (Jan 23, 2012)

First, sysinstall is mostly dead.  Avoid it if possible.  It won't install the source distribution for you any more.

There are two ways to get the source.  Okay, maybe a lot more, but only two will be covered here.


 Download the tar file that matches the version you installed.
i386: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/i386/9.0-RELEASE/src.txz
amd64: ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/amd64/9.0-RELEASE/src.txz

Unpack the archive to /usr/src:
`# tar -C / -xvzf src.txz`

Be aware that this will only get you the code for FreeBSD-9.0-RELEASE, not anything that has been added since then.


 svn(1)
SVN (Subversion) is a newer source control system.  It is not part of the base system, so install devel/subversion.  Then check out the source:
`# svn checkout [url]https://svn0.us-west.FreeBSD.org/base/releng/9.0/[/url] /usr/src`

Other versions of FreeBSD have different URLs, like https://svn0.us-west.FreeBSD.org/base/stable/9/ for 9-STABLE.  svn includes a larger history and can take up to twice the amount of disk space as a CVS checkout.

When using HTTPS, the first checkout will ask about the server certificate.

```
Error validating server certificate for 'https://svn0.us-west.freebsd.org:443':
 - The certificate is not issued by a trusted authority. Use the
   fingerprint to validate the certificate manually!
Certificate information:
 - Hostname: svnmir.ysv.FreeBSD.org
 - Valid: from Fri, 24 Aug 2012 22:04:04 GMT until Sat, 24 Aug 2013 22:04:04 GMT
 - Issuer: clusteradm, FreeBSD.org, CA, US
 - Fingerprint: 79:35:8f:ca:6d:34:d9:30:44:d1:00:af:33:4d:e6:11:44:4d:15:ec
(R)eject, accept (t)emporarily or accept (p)ermanently?
```
The certificate can be accepted temporarily or permanently, or rejected if you doubt that machine's identity.  Other protocols have different authentication methods.

See the Handbook SVN mirror list for alternate servers which may be faster for you.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jan 24, 2012)

But what about the noobs? Won't someone think of the noobs?!


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## aragon (Jan 24, 2012)

drhowarddrfine said:
			
		

> But what about the noobs? Won't someone think of the noobs?!


The Foundation should make a GUI for this!


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## OH (Jan 25, 2012)

If we're on the subject, I have a few follow-up questions:

Is there a preferred method?
Would (for example) starting with method 1 and then keeping up with 2 or 3 save on bandwidth / lighten the load on the servers and mirrors involved?
Will the handbook ever get updated to reflect the difference between net/cvsup and csup()?


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## SirDice (Jan 25, 2012)

OH said:
			
		

> Is there a preferred method?


Currently it's method 2 but it might move to method 3 in the near future. CVS has been mostly deprecated in favor of SVN. Method 2 works on a clean base OS without any ports installed.



> Would (for example) starting with method 1 and then keeping up with 2 or 3 save on bandwidth / lighten the load on the servers and mirrors involved?


The sources have to come from somewhere. It really doesn't matter if you download the tarball first or not. It'll only take a little longer for method 2 and 3 if there's nothing when you first run it.



> Will the handbook ever get updated to reflect the difference between net/cvsup and csup()?


It already is?


> Note: The csup utility is a rewrite of the CVSup software in C. Its biggest advantage is, that it is faster and does not depend on the Modula-3 language, thus you do not need to install it as a requirement. Moreover you can use it out-of-the-box, since it is included in the base system. If you decided to use csup, just skip the steps on the installation of CVSup and substitute the references of CVSup with csup while following the remainder of this article.


Granted, I'd much rather see CVSup completely removed from the handbook.


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## wblock@ (Jan 25, 2012)

OH said:
			
		

> Will the handbook ever get updated to reflect the difference between net/cvsup and csup()?



It needs to be done, yes.  It's an easier change than usual, because in most cases instructions on installing cvsup from ports will be removed.  Could be a good opportunity for someone looking to help with documentation by submitting patches.


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## rossiya (Feb 5, 2012)

Damn people if you have the DVD just `# mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0 /cdrom` and then `# tar -C / /cdrom/usr/freebsd-dist/src.txz`

Sorry couldn't find the code button


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## vand777 (Feb 5, 2012)

rossiya said:
			
		

> Damn people if you have the dvd just mount_cd9660 /dev/acd0  /cdrom and then tar -C / /cdrom/usr/freebsd-dist/src.txz
> 
> Sorry couldn't find the code button



The source code on DVD/CD does not contain security patches (if any discovered after the release).


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## jalla (Feb 5, 2012)

Those who routinely check out src for several machines, or like to  play around with different versions could consider keeping a local repository. Just set release=cvs in the supfile.


```
*default host=X.Y.FreeBSD.org
*default base=/usr/local
*default prefix=/CVS
*default release=cvs
*default delete use-rel-suffix compress

src-all
ports-all
doc-all
```
Then checkout any branch, or src from a specific point-in-time from your local /CVS


```
gnome:/usr# cvs -d /CVS co -r RELENG_9 src/UPDATING
U src/UPDATING
gnome:/usr# cvs -d /CVS co -D 1/1/2012 -r RELENG_8 src/etc/defaults/rc.conf
U src/etc/defaults/rc.conf
gnome:/usr#
```


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## rossiya (Feb 6, 2012)

vand777 said:
			
		

> The source code on DVD/CD does not contain security patches (if any discovered after the release).


Sure, but on fresh machines namely the 9.0 Live DVD with /usr/src and /usr/obj bolted onto my hard drive with null_fs NOTHING compiled.  Not 9.0-RELENG, 9 STABLE.  Nor did the freebsd-update work because the system is at 8.2 STABLE.  So I had to *untar* the base tarball at the command line to make my "upgrade" to 9.0.

Generally X.0-RELENG releases of FreeBSD suck in terms of building the source system.  I had to do this because I was building a fresh drive and don't want to play with it later when I need it.  So no I have NO security patches because the patches to make RELENG-9.0 compile haven't somehow migrated to the csup servers.  I don't think I should be making problem reports for release base system compilation failures.  Perhaps STABLE will build somewhere around summertime.


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## wblock@ (Feb 6, 2012)

Source upgrades from 8-stable to 9-stable have worked for me on at least two systems so far.  Source was updated with csup(1).  If that doesn't work, please start a new thread.


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## jb_fvwm2 (Feb 7, 2012)

rossiya said:
			
		

> Sure, but on fresh machines namely the 9.0 Live DVD with /usr/src and /usr/obj bolted onto my hard drive with null_fs NOTHING compiled.  Not 9.0-RELENG, 9 STABLE.  Nor did the freebsd-update work because the system is at 8.2 STABLE.  So I had to *untar* the base tarball at the command line to make my "upgrade" to 9.0.
> 
> Generally X.0-RELENG releases of FreeBSD suck in terms of building the source system.  I had to do this because I was building a fresh drive and don't want to play with it later when I need it.  So no I have NO security patches because the patches to make RELENG-9.0 compile haven't somehow migrated to the csup servers.  I don't think I should be making problem reports for release base system compilation failures.  Perhaps STABLE will build somewhere around summertime.



Not sure (sorry!) if it would help in that case, but I found that if one has a thumbdrive with already compiled /usr/src; /usr/obj mounted as such 
	
	



```
mount -t ufs -o union /dev/da0 /usr
```
 where the /src /obj are at the root of the thumbdrive, one can install (vs build) from the thumbdrive. (I did a short howto writeup...)


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## rossiya (Feb 7, 2012)

jb_fvwm2 said:
			
		

> ```
> mount -t ufs -o union /dev/da0 /usr
> ```


Oh yes I threw many tarballs around for that reason alone.  But back in 2001 I did a lot of builds because many of the dual-pentium machines were dodgy, so burn-ins were the stress test.  No, even when I used clang exclusively this system didn't build.  That's supposed to be the grail supposedly.  I'm sure there are days when sup'ing the code would yield a clean build.  Timing is everything.  /usr/src gets a lot more buildable around subversion 2, historically.

Even worse I had an inconsistent build on a second machine.  That blew my nvidia driver which was running perfectly fine on the prior machine for the last four years.  As the machine is my firewall, I kept trying to DHCP a public IP from my 2wire.  It was then I learned it had cloned my firewall machine identity.  Now the entire LAN was down.  Since there was no X11 there was no browser and hence no way to fixate the 2wire on the right identity.  I browsed with other boxes and played musical clones with the 2wire for half an hour.  It played wackamole that long.  Finally lady luck came to my rescue and the right id gave me a public IP.  Out of the matrix at last.

Apparently the dumbed-down 2wire interface uses dumbed-down programming internally as well.

Anyway the firewall will stay at 8.2 until -RELEASE, -STABLE or something in between ultimately builds.  Must keep the faith.


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## rossiya (Feb 9, 2012)

Yo I got builds working.  Turns out a sub mirror, cvsup10, has old obsolete files, likely mixed in, and was generally stale.  I switched to another randomly, in my case cvsup5, and everything built nicely on STABLE9.  Well, except for the wireless code, which I had to block in /etc/src.conf.

Also, I could not get the nvidia driver module working or even loading in 8.2 after I moved it to another Nvidia card.  But typical for FreeBSD it came right up on STABLE9.  Despite the driver from nvidia.com directly blocking FreeBSD 9 in its Makefile.  Apparently the driver ONLY works on FreeBSD 9!


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## zennybsd (Mar 9, 2012)

I installed src and ports from the fbsd FreeBSD 9-Stable DVD itself while installing. Now what confuses me is how could I update the src and ports to the latest RELENG_9 in order to have the updated CVS tree?

I tried with /usr as the default prefix in the supfile and it messed up everything. Just confused.


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## kpa (Mar 9, 2012)

You need the proper supfile for RELENG_9, /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile. You can use it as it is if you give a hostname on the command line:

`# csup -h cvsup.freebsd.org /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile`

Use of the main cvsup site is not necessary of course, you can select a mirror site as well.

Oh, and it's best to move the old 9.0-RELEASE sources out of the way before fetching 9-STABLE sources.


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## zennybsd (Mar 10, 2012)

@kpa: Thanks.

Since I installed from the FreeBSD9-STABLE, how does it affect if I use /usr/share/examples/cvsup/stable-supfile with [cmd=""]csup[/cmd]? I am asking this because the stable-supfile still defaults to RELENG_9 in the default line. Or did I miss something?

Which one is the right statement in supfile for FreeBSD9-STABLE installation?


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## kpa (Mar 10, 2012)

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/cvs-tags.html

RELENG_9 is 9-STABLE.


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## Beeblebrox (Mar 23, 2012)

I've been using SVN since about Nov '11. SVN is so much faster than CVS. I would like to see GIT implemented for ports but that's a long way off (bringing ports into SVN structure is a greater priority). I had asked about ports on git here, but that's another issue.

My point: Recommend SVN for /src above anything else.


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## melanie (Apr 14, 2012)

Hi, *I* have a question in this context: is there any integrity checking done when I download the source with one of the above methods? Digital signatures, secure tunneling, checksums -- anything? I was told on IRC that this is not the case but I found this rather hard to believe. I mean, seriously, I am by far not one of the most paranoid people -- but mitm-attacks are nothing fancy nowadays at all. I also don't really understand the situation since I _was_ told that when I use ports with portsnap, THEN there is integrity checking done. Now, providing a more secure method for transferring ports than for the base system does not make much sense to me.

How do you guys work with this situation?

Thanks a lot,
mel


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## nixuser (Apr 26, 2012)

I need to cut a custom kernel.

I downloaded the source using method (3):

`# svn checkout [url=svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/releng/9.0/]svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/releng/9.0/[/url] /usr/src`

but it downloaded everything except the bit I wanted... the process left /usr/src/sys empty.

I've done something wrong obviously.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I believe it downloaded everything except "sys".


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## wblock@ (Apr 26, 2012)

Try again.  A fresh checkout I tried just now had sys.


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## nixuser (Apr 26, 2012)

Same problem:


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## wblock@ (Apr 26, 2012)

Is it missing in -stable?
`# svn checkout [url=svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/stable/9]svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/stable/9[/url] /usr/src`


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## nixuser (Apr 27, 2012)

I just downloaded stable and thankfully sys did get downloaded with it.

For my purpose I guess I can cut my kernel from stable.  So that fixes my immediate issue, but it does leave the original mystery outstanding.


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## wblock@ (Apr 27, 2012)

9-STABLE has some important bug fixes over 9.0-RELEASE.

As far as sys missing, CVS mirrors can get out of sync, but AFAIK there is only the one svn server.  Make sure you have the latest version of devel/subversion.


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## pentafonium (Jun 26, 2012)

Thanks, method 3 was just what I needed.

I still have one question. If I installed a 9.0 and did a *freebsd-update (fetch/install)*, would the system become a -STABLE or do I still have a -RELEASE?

Thanks for the answers.

Kind regards


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## DutchDaemon (Jun 26, 2012)

freebsd-update(8) stays on -RELEASE, but raises the patch level. It may work with -PRERELEASE and -RC versions, but never -STABLE or -CURRENT.


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## wpostma (Nov 21, 2012)

So now that CSUP is down due to the intrusion is it time at last to simplify and consolidate around SVN?

Am I the only one who wishes the docs above told me how to figure out which version I should get from svn? (releng/9.0 versus stable/9)?

W


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## wblock@ (Nov 22, 2012)

Yes, stop using csup.

As far as using -RELEASE, -STABLE, or -CURRENT, it depends on you.

From the Handbook: Tracking a Development Branch

My own take: Upgrading FreeBSD To -STABLE


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## jb_fvwm2 (Nov 22, 2012)

One one CPU today I upgraded to fix the 9.0 > 9.1  _ThreadRuneLocale error. (Slight library difference meant some ports built on one would not work on the other, the earlier version was
at fault.)
I found that if you -DNO_PROFILE -DNOPROFILE for buildworld, installworld will fail unless also using those parameters.  ("libc_p.a not found")
Now to the main reason for this post, one time compiling subversion and dependencies here crashed xorg, one might want to do it o/o an xterm for that reason.


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## wblock@ (Nov 22, 2012)

If a machine crashes compiling devel/subversion, it has other problems.


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## jb_fvwm2 (Nov 22, 2012)

It may have crashed compiling the dependencies.  (It only has 1.5G memory, and the browser usually has many tabs open. Maybe it was the browser that crashed... much more common nowadays with huge complex web pages...)


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## nickednamed (Feb 24, 2013)

So if I want the FreeBSD kernel source, I now have two options:


Download and install SVN
Manually download and extract the source.

I'm running FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE. Would this be the right link for kernel source?

So are there currently no tools in the base system for handling this? If SVN is the future, does that mean these extra dependencies will make their way into the base system?


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## wblock@ (Feb 24, 2013)

The source should be the same for either link, but it's a good idea to match the architecture with what is installed, i386 or amd64, just in case there are any differences.

No, svn will not be imported into the base system any time soon.  It's a developer tool which many users will not need, and importing it would freeze the version and make updates more difficult.

There are at least three separate efforts under way to make something equivalent to csup(1), something that could get just the source from the SVN repository.  None are ready yet.


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## nickednamed (Feb 26, 2013)

Ok then. Thanks for the info. Sorry to drag up old threads.

I'm writing a setup shell script at the moment (in case I ever have to do a quick re-install) so I will be sure to include some way of down loading and installing the source from FTP.

Thanks again.


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## programmerdams (Oct 25, 2013)

> Unpack the archive to /usr/src:
> 
> ```
> # tar -C / -xvzf src.txz
> ```



But won't the above command extract it to the root directory, instead?

```
# tar -C /usr/src/ -xvzf src.txz
```


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## SirDice (Oct 25, 2013)

The archive was made using / as a start point. Extracting it in /usr/src/ would expand everything as /usr/src/usr/src/.


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## wblock@ (Oct 25, 2013)

programmerdams said:
			
		

> But won't the above command extract it to the root directory, instead?



Yes.  This works because the archive contains the /usr/src directories, not just the contents of those directories.


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## mecano (Mar 18, 2014)

*Re:*



			
				Beeblebrox said:
			
		

> I've been using SVN since about Nov '11. SVN is so much faster than CVS. I would like to see GIT implemented for ports but that's a long way off (bringing ports into SVN structure is a greater priority). I had asked about ports on git here, but that's another issue.
> 
> My point: Recommend SVN for /src above anything else.



I do not want to start a devel/subversion/devel/git war but why won't devel/git be good for /src as well?
Anyone tried to get or successfully got the /src with devel/git in `svn` mode?


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## Carpetsmoker (Mar 18, 2014)

*Re: Re:*



			
				mecano said:
			
		

> Beeblebrox said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Perhaps because git has an overly complex user-interface, and in general is hard to work with. If anything, I would expect FreeBSD to move to mercurial, which is much more UNIX/BSD-like in many ways.


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## SirDice (Mar 18, 2014)

*Re: Re:*



			
				mecano said:
			
		

> I do not want to start a devel/subversion/devel/git war but why won't devel/git be good for /src as well?


The FreeBSD source tree fits better with subversion. The change to Git would have taken too much of an impact. 

https://wiki.freebsd.org/VCSWhy


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## mecano (Mar 18, 2014)

Thanks @Carpetsmoker and @SirDice, these are very interesting answers.
@Carpetsmoker dunno about the command line ui for devel/git because I use a gui called GitX (rowanj fork) and for my very basic needs it feels incredibly comfortable.


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## PacketMan (Mar 29, 2015)

wblock@ said:


> First, sysinstall is mostly dead.  Avoid it if possible.  It won't install the source distribution for you any more.
> 
> There are two ways to get the source.  Okay, maybe a lot more, but only two will be covered here.
> 
> ...



So as a best practice (including 10.x, 11.x etc releases), should I get the source and 'load up' /usr/src right after a fresh install, or maybe I should only do it when there is a program that actually needs to use something from it?


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## wblock@ (Mar 29, 2015)

PacketMan said:


> So as a best practice (including 10.x, 11.x etc releases), should I get the source and 'load up' /usr/src right after a fresh install, or maybe I should only do it when there is a program that actually needs to use something from it?



It depends on your use of the system.  If you only need the source occasionally, /usr/src can be checked out or deleted as convenient.  It is important that it matches with the installed version of the operating system, particularly for ports like VirtualBox and sysutils/lsof.


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## kpa (Mar 31, 2015)

Note that the sources you get from the FTP mirrors are out of date because the release distribution sets are not updated after they have been uploaded once. For example if you downloaded this tarball for FreeBSD 10.1 sources you would still have to run freebsd-update(8) to get the really up-to-date sources that match your installed 10.1 system.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 28, 2019)

drhowarddrfine said:


> But what about the noobs? Won't someone think of the noobs?!


AMEN from a 71 year old noob!!


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## Phishfry (Jan 28, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> AMEN from a 71 year old noob!!


There is a tool in base now to do this: `svnlite`
So replace `svn` with `svnlite` to save you some disk space. Unless you need all the features of SVN.
`svnlite checkout svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/releng/12.0/ /usr/src`
`svn` is a port and has some large dependencies.  `svnlite` is in our base.


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## scottro (Jan 29, 2019)

Just a note that before today's posts, the last one in the thread is from 2015.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> There is a tool in base now to do this: `svnlite`
> So replace `svn` with `svnlite` to save you some disk space. Unless you need all the features of SVN.
> `svnlite checkout svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/releng/12.0/ /usr/src`
> `svn` is a port and has some large dependencies.  `svnlite` is in our base.



Thank you for replying. I will take a look at svnlite. Now I do remember the old days of Unix Shell Internet access (before the www came along), but memory fades.  Now except for using pkg, I really do not know how to, or in these days, if, one can access the internet via the command line.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

scottro said:


> Just a note that before today's posts, the last one in the thread is from 2015.


Alas, I did not notice that; the dates are rather pale; I ended up here via duck search from this new iMac.   That does bring up a question; why are not some of these conversations archived after a fixed period of time, or even as the Apple communities does, provide a warning that a particular discussion is old, and that one should start a new topic?


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

Alas, I do not understand what 
svnlite checkout svn://svn.freebsd.org/base/releng/12.0/ /usr/src
means.


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## scottro (Jan 30, 2019)

Yeah, the dates are hard to read.  I miss them unless I'm really looking for them. I just wondered because  wblock hasn't posted here in a long time (to our loss) and FreeBSD-9x is pretty old by now.  

svnlite checkout et al will pull the source code and put it on your machine in /usr/src.  It is sometimes necessary to build various ports, and apparently, even to install some packages.  

svnlite is the program, checkout is what the command will do--there are various things svnlite does, checking out, in this case, means pulling the latest source code.  

svn.freebsd.org will go to one of the FreeBSD.org's main svn servers (that have this source code) the base/releng/12.0
is, if you're running 12.0, the version of the source code you want--the base, meaning the  main system, releng, meaning a release, and 12.0, which release you want. (It might also be 11.2 if that's what you're running).  /usr/src is where you're going to put this checked out source code.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jan 30, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> why are not some of these conversations archived


I'm not aware of any forum that does that and that would also mean tucking away information that may be useful just because it's an older post but that reitereates what I said earlier. This forum is not documentation.



scottro said:


> I just wondered because wblock hasn't posted here in a long time


Somewhere on here he posted that it's cause he became too busy with the documentation project.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

scottro said:


> Yeah, the dates are hard to read.  I miss them unless I'm really looking for them. I just wondered because  wblock hasn't posted here in a long time (to our loss) and FreeBSD-9x is pretty old by now.
> 
> svnlite checkout et al will pull the source code and put it on your machine in /usr/src.  It is sometimes necessary to build various ports, and apparently, even to install some packages.
> 
> ...



Howdy
I searched into this area, because an Nvidia doc said that I needed /src/sys installed, and I was looking for a way to do that; I believe that the old way was to use sysinstall. I got fed-up with trying to go that route, and reinstalled freeBSD on the other iMac using the sys installation option. Yesterday after reading all ya'lls recommendations, I went back to that machine, and I discovered that svnlite had been installed.  However, and holy smokes, that thing is a little "beastie".  Except for the initial man page, anything else, svnlite help, for example returns screen loads of information. Perhaps I should go to that apache website and see if there are some super relevant pages that I could print out.

Also, I wonder who one could contact to ask about redesigning or editing the html so the forum posting dates are more evident?


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## SirDice (Jan 30, 2019)

The svnlite(1) tool is included in the base OS, so you should always have it. It's basically a limited version of devel/subversion. The base tool is somewhat limited in the features it supports but should have everything you need to do some basic version management. It has more than enough functionality to fetch the FreeBSD sources or ports trees. 



OldSubSailor said:


> Also, I wonder who one could contact to ask about redesigning or editing the html so the forum posting dates are more evident?


You can use the "Feedback" section for this. The forum software we use is a commercial product (XenForo) and while it is quite customizable I'm not sure if this could be changed. We obviously don't want to customize the code too much as it will make forum updates/upgrades more difficult, and in some cases even impossible.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

drhowarddrfine said:


> I'm not aware of any forum that does that and that would also mean tucking away information that may be useful just because it's an older post but that reitereates what I said earlier. This forum is not documentation.
> 
> 
> Somewhere on here he posted that it's cause he became too busy with the documentation project.



I hope that someone is working on getting the handbook up to date


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

SirDice said:


> The svnlite(1) tool is included in the base OS, so you should always have it. It's basically a limited version of devel/subversion. The base tool is somewhat limited in the features it supports but should have everything you need to do some basic version management. It has more than enough functionality to fetch the FreeBSD sources or ports trees.
> 
> 
> You can use the "Feedback" section for this. The forum software we use is a commercial product (XenForo) and while it is quite customizable I'm not sure if this could be changed. We obviously don't want to customize the code too much as it will make forum updates/upgrades more difficult, and in some cases even impossible.


Ah, thank you, very interesting. 
Evidently that is why I saw a .subverson directory in my home directory that I was wondering about, but did not look into it. I had been locked into trying to get that Xorg stuff to work.

I guess that I should go ahead and try using the feedback (when I find it) just to see what ya'll can do perhaps?


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## SirDice (Jan 30, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> hope that someone is working on getting the handbook up to date


You're more than welcome to help out: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/

Keep in mind that most things on FreeBSD depend on kind users submitting updates, a lot of things are community driven. There is some oversight of course but almost everyone does this for free, in their spare time.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

SirDice said:


> You're more than welcome to help out: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/fdp-primer/
> 
> Keep in mind that most things on FreeBSD depend on kind users submitting updates, a lot of things are community driven. There is some oversight of course but almost everyone does this for free, in their spare time.



I would be glad to, when I actually know enough to do that. I have been an Apple kinda guy since the Apple II days, so I have much to learn.


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## SirDice (Jan 30, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I guess that I should go ahead and try using the feedback (when I find it) just to see what ya'll can do perhaps?


It's here: https://forums.freebsd.org/forums/feedback.17/


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 30, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I would be glad to, when I actually know enough to do that. I have been an Apple kinda guy since the Apple II days, so I have much to learn.





SirDice said:


> It's here: https://forums.freebsd.org/forums/feedback.17/


Thank you.  Another question, how do I get out of the reply 'box' if I do not want to continue on with the reply? For example the thing just above this reply?


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