# 8.2-RELEASE-p3 End-of-Life message?



## chillybsd (Dec 3, 2011)

Hi, I'm wondering why I got this message about end of life:


```
16:30:26 ~ #>freebsd-update fetch
Looking up update.FreeBSD.org mirrors... 4 mirrors found.
Fetching metadata signature for 8.2-RELEASE from update5.FreeBSD.org... done.
Fetching metadata index... done.
Inspecting system... done.
Preparing to download files... done.

No updates needed to update system to 8.2-RELEASE-p4.

WARNING: FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3 is approaching its End-of-Life date.
It is strongly recommended that you upgrade to a newer
release within the next 2 months.
```

Here is the output from my [CMD=]uname -a[/CMD]:

```
FreeBSD bsd.home.local 8.2-RELEASE-p3 FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE-p3 #0: Tue Sep 27 18:07:27 UTC 2011     [email]root@i386-
builder.daemonology.net[/email]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
```

Thanks!


----------



## gkontos (Dec 4, 2011)

FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE has an estimated EOL February 24 2012. You can read more about it here.


----------



## jrm@ (Dec 4, 2011)

gkontos said:
			
		

> FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE has an estimated EOL February 24 2012.



Typo correction: It says February 29, 2012 is EOL for FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE.


----------



## Lido (Dec 4, 2011)

Why is the 7.x release being supported longer than 8? February 2012 is coming up pretty fast and I just downloaded and installed 8.2 a few days ago.


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 4, 2011)

Support for 8.2-RELEASE is not the same as support for FreeBSD 8 in general.  Probably 8.3 will be out before 8.2 goes EOL.


----------



## Lido (Dec 4, 2011)

Will freebsd-update install 8.3 from 8.2 or is there a different way to upgrade?


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 4, 2011)

It should be the same as usual, freebsd-update(8) or the standard csup/buildworld/kernel/installworld routine.


----------



## chillybsd (Dec 4, 2011)

Lido said:
			
		

> Will freebsd-update install 8.3 from 8.2 or is there a different way to upgrade?



that was my next question too   Thanks wblock for the answer!


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 4, 2011)

Should add that I have no idea when 8.3 is supposed to be out, and it might be after the EOL date for 8.2-RELEASE.  But it doesn't matter.  8.2-RELEASE is just one branch on the tree.  There are more branches on that side of the trunk.


----------



## gkontos (Dec 4, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> Should add that I have no idea when 8.3 is supposed to be out, and it might be after the EOL date for 8.2-RELEASE.  But it doesn't matter.  8.2-RELEASE is just one branch on the tree.  There are more branches on that side of the trunk.


I have the impression that it will be released together with 9.0-RELEASE.


----------



## vand777 (Dec 4, 2011)

Lido said:
			
		

> Why is the 7.x release being supported longer than 8? February 2012 is coming up pretty fast and I just downloaded and installed 8.2 a few days ago.



From http://www.freebsd.org/security/security.html#supported-branches:



> Each branch is supported by the Security Officer for a limited time only, and is designated as one of "Early adopter", "Normal", or "Extended". The designation is used as a guideline for determining the lifetime of the branch as follows.
> 
> *Early adopter*
> Releases which are published from the -CURRENT branch will be supported by the Security Officer for a minimum of 6 months after the release.
> ...



8.1 - "extended" (until July 31, 2012)
8.2 - "normal" (until February 29, 2012)

8.3 and 8.4 will be "extended" (2 years support).
9.0 and 9.2 will be "normal" (1 year support).
9.1 and 9.3 will be "extended" (2 years support).


----------



## vand777 (Dec 4, 2011)

Lido said:
			
		

> Will freebsd-update install 8.3 from 8.2 or is there a different way to upgrade?



9.0 is coming soon. It might be a good idea to update straight to 9.0 instead of waiting for 8.3. 

P.S. My plan is to wait until 9.0 is finally out and then to wait for the first security advisory in FreeBSD, and then update straight from 8.2 p4 to 9.0-p1. In this case I'll be able to minimize the downtime for my servers.


----------



## vand777 (Dec 4, 2011)

gkontos said:
			
		

> I have the impression that it will be released together with 9.0-RELEASE.



It does not look this way :-(


----------



## gkontos (Dec 4, 2011)

vand777 said:
			
		

> It does not look this way :-(



Any idea why?


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 4, 2011)

The overhead of trying to release two branches simultaneously is probably not manageable with the number of people involved.  The preparations for 8.3 haven't even started yet.


----------



## pkubaj (Dec 4, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> The overhead of trying to release two branches simultaneously is probably not manageable with the number of people involved.  The preparations for 8.3 haven't even started yet.



7.4 and 8.2 were released simultaneously.


----------



## Lido (Dec 4, 2011)

wblock@ said:
			
		

> It should be the same as usual, freebsd-update(8) or the standard csup/buildworld/kernel/installworld routine.



Thanks. I'll have to look that csup/.../installworld command in the manual. Never used it before.


----------



## wblock@ (Dec 4, 2011)

Both were updates of existing branches.  9.0 is a new branch.  Of course, I could be wrong, too, but haven't seen any mention of 8.3 on any of the mailing lists I follow.


----------



## gkontos (Dec 4, 2011)

Maybe so, but If I recall correctly every major release was followed immediately by a minor of the previous version.
It also makes sense if you think that 8.2 was released almost a year ago. Also the last major change was zfs V28 MFC which was done in June.  Since then a lot of bug fixes have been applied making 8.2-STABLE very solid. 
So, it wouldn't be so hard to just draw the line and issue a RELEASE.

Just my guess!


----------



## pkubaj (Dec 4, 2011)

I also follow mailing lists and didn't see any mention on 8.3 as well, but just wanted to indicate that releasing new releases for 2 branches isn't impossible. Of course, it won't be released along with 9.0-RELEASE, now that RC3 is out and we may expect final release till the end of the year. But I think that once devs deal with 9.0, they will release some info about 8.3.


----------

