# Handbook is conservative.



## Alain De Vos (Apr 10, 2021)

In short you can update  ,"/usr/ports" & "/usr/src" by 4 ways: http(web), ftp, subversion(svn), git.
Shouldn't handbook explain each way, and this in quarterly and non-quarterly, main version release candidate, and not refer to an appendix.


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## Menelkir (Apr 10, 2021)

Maybe this is what you want: 
https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading.html


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## Phishfry (Apr 10, 2021)

I like to think of the handbook as the general guide. Many times it does not list all possible ways of doing something.
Sometimes a google search will pull up an old version of the handbook. So you need to remember that it is just a reference guide.
There are many sources of FreeBSD information from the source code comments to blogs.

I am sure that any additions to the FreeBSD handbook would be much appreciated.


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## Phishfry (Apr 10, 2021)

What I would like to see is a push for all manpages to offer EXAMPLES
They are most useful to me. Most have examples some do not.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Apr 11, 2021)

Menelkir said:


> Maybe this is what you want:
> https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/updating-upgrading.html


Close but not quite up to date. From your link:


```
Before reading this chapter, you should:

Know how to install additional third-party software (Chapter 4, Installing Applications: Packages and Ports).
```

I'm not sure just how much it's going to change because I have not changed from `portsnap fetch update` but the whole section about ports is obsolete as is my Tutorial. The Handbook probably much easier to absorb and reflect the change better than the prospects of my Tutorial being worth fsck to newcomers once made.

But it matters not. Odds that I adapt to change and survive 100% in my favor. I am such a fan of Natures Way.


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## drhowarddrfine (Apr 11, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> Sometimes a google search will pull up an old version of the handbook. So you need to remember that it is just a reference guide.


No, you should remember not to use Google to find the Handbook.


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## zirias@ (Apr 11, 2021)

Actually, someone should probably "clean up". The handbook was always updated "in place", but at some time, the URLs for languages changed from using a full locale name to just the language code. So, just removing the old documents would already help. Perfect for usability would be some HTTP 301 redirects instead.

As long as the top results on Google lead to outdated versions, at least 80% will read these instead of the correct ones.


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## a6h (Apr 11, 2021)

Phishfry said:


> Sometimes a google search will pull up an old version of the handbook.


AFAIR 5 and 6 releases.



drhowarddrfine said:


> No, you should remember not to use Google to find the Handbook.


I use a simple plaintext (html) file, to store all bookmarks -- a made-up hierarchical organization.
I have a bookmark, pointing  to "file:///directory/textfile" in [nearly] all my profiles (browsers).

One of the many benefits of such arrangement:
It's "grep(1)"-able!


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## SirDice (Apr 13, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> No, you should remember not to use Google to find the Handbook.


This. Look in the latest version of the handbook first. If that doesn't provide an answer then you should try to google it. Not the other way around. I see way to many new users referring to some howto they found on the internet that turned out to be decades old.


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## Alain De Vos (Apr 15, 2021)

Kernel source 13 and ports 2021Q2 are not in subversion
I.e. no 13 in :





						[base] Index of /releng
					






					svnweb.freebsd.org
				



No 2021Q2 in :





						[ports] Index of /branches
					






					svnweb.freebsd.org
				



They are however in git.
Whereas handbook describes subversion method but not git


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## Alain De Vos (Apr 16, 2021)

Ooh ,  I just found out how to use git to check out sources & ports,

```
git clone --depth 1 --branch releng/13.0 --single-branch https://git.freebsd.org/src.git /usr/src
git clone --depth 1 --branch 2021Q2 --single-branch https://git.freebsd.org/ports.git /usr/ports
```


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## SirDice (Apr 16, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> Whereas handbook describes subversion method but not git


Old version of the handbook.








						Chapter 4. Installing Applications: Packages and Ports
					

FreeBSD provides two complementary technologies for installing third-party software: the FreeBSD Ports Collection, for installing from source, and packages, for installing from pre-built binaries




					docs.freebsd.org
				











						Chapter 25. Updating and Upgrading FreeBSD
					

Information about how to keep a FreeBSD system up-to-date with freebsd-update or Git, how to rebuild and reinstall the entire base system, etc




					docs.freebsd.org


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## zirias@ (Apr 16, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> Whereas handbook describes subversion method but not git


That's just wrong. The handbook had git instructions for src for quite some time now, and recently also has git instructions for ports.

As a reminder, the handbook can be found here: https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/

You're most certainly looking at an outdated version.


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