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I tried to update by system to the latest -STABLE, but got -RC or -BETA! Whats going on?

April 26, 2017going GOT latest system

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I tried to update by system to the latest -STABLE, but got -RC or -BETA! Whats going on?

1 Answer

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Short answer: it’s just a name. RC stands for “Release Candidate”. It signifies that a release is imminent. In FreeBSD, -BETA is synonymous with -RC. Long answer: FreeBSD derives its releases from one of two places. Major, dot-zero, releases, such as 3.0-RELEASE and 4.0-RELEASE, are branched from the head of the development stream, commonly referred to as -CURRENT. Minor releases, such as 3.1-RELEASE or 4.2-RELEASE, are snapshots of the active -STABLE branch. When a release is about to be made, the branch from which it will be derived from has to undergo a certain process. Part of this process is a code freeze. When a code freeze is initiated, the name of the branch is changed to reflect that it’s about to become a release. For example, if the branch used to be called 4.0-STABLE, its name will be changed to 4.1-RC to signify that a release is about to be made from it. Once the release, 4.1-RELEASE in this example, has been made, the branch will be renamed to 4.1-STABLE.