Re: upgrading: 5.2.1 to 5.3 OR a new 5.3?

On Friday 01 October 2004 08:04 am, Esaltato wrote:
> Hello. What is your general opinion on upgrading FreeBSD installations?
> I ask this since 5.3 is close and I'm gonna move to a new hd, but I
> don't know whether is more wise to move my existing beloved 5.2.1
> install or to start anew.
> Reinstalling has it pros like deleting all the possible junk. But being
> FreeBSD a very polished filesystem furnished OS, I think it might be
> safe to convert my 5.2.1 to 5.3 without inheriting too much junk.
> Are there any cons? Maybe the new tecnhology may leave unexpected
> problems pending against the old one?
> I must say I'm really in favour of a new install, but thinking to the
> many customizations and mods I've done and to the time it could take to
> redo them...
> Obviously i would take my conf. files with me, upgrading them when
> necessary.
> Opinions?

I'd recommend a reinstall. There have been several changes since 5.2.1 that 
require ports to be rebuilt - new perl, new gcc, incompatible library changes 
- so you'd have to rebuild all your ports anyway.

It does take a little while to get everything back the way you want it again 
(I just did a reinstall myself). But there's something nice about having a 
clean system.

-David