Zelut’s Blog

I want to thank one of the readers who left a comment recently regarding the use of cvsup.  Apparently, some time ago, cvsup was replaced with a smaller, faster utility which comes included in the base OS.  This tool is simply: csup.

Some of the benefits of using csup instead of cvsup are:

1. It comes preinstalled in the base OS.
2. No need to build cvsup and all its dependencies.
3. No need to install base ports in order to build cvsup in order to update your ports.

I tried csup and noticed that it should be a drop-in replacement for those that still use cvsup.  You should be able to use the same options and command arguments that you did previously.

Here is an example of something I’ve setup which allows me to update my base OS + ports using csup and one command:

/etc/make.conf

## csup config (just use 'make update' in /usr/ports or /usr/src)
SUP_UPDATE=yes
SUP= /usr/bin/csup
SUPFLAGS= -g -L2
SUPHOST= cvsup.freebsd.org
SUPFILE= /usr/share/examples/cvsup/standard-supfile
PORTSSUPFILE= /usr/share/examples/cvsup/ports-supfile

After adding those lines to your /etc/make.conf you can update your base OS and ports tree using ‘make update’ within the /usr/src directory.

For more info on using either of these tools see the CVSup Handbook page.

I spent some time this afternoon on the bus ride home setting a new theme to the blog here. I’ve also cleaned up the categories. Ohh, and the most exciting part (even if it is transparent to the end-user), I upgraded to WordPress trunk.

If you have not seen the new dashboard in WP 2.7 you should really check it out. Its really clean and slick–I really like it.

In any event, I hope to continue my FreeBSD and miscellaneous posts here while the ‘buntu specific stuff will be on Ubuntu Tutorials.