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Running CVSup brings your ports collection located at /usr/ports to the latestavailable revision. This is shown here:# csup /etc/cvsupfileConnected to cvsup7.freebsd.orgUpdating collection ports-all/cvsEdit ports/devel/qt4/MakefileEdit ports/mail/thunderbird/MakefileEdit ports/mail/thunderbird/distinfo...Finished successfullyChapter 2You can also run csup periodically, using cron to make sure that your ports tree isalways up-to-date. For this, you should run csup with appropriate arguments fromcron and redirect the output to a log file, for further inspection. The sample cronline that runs csup everyday at 4:30 is shown as follows:30 4 * * * root /usr/bin/csup /etc/cvsupfile 2>&1 > /var/log/csup.logThe csup updates the live /usr/ports directory. Hence, if you havechanged anything within the /usr/ports sub tree, your changes will beoverwritten by csup.PortsnapAlthough-using CVSup, to make the ports tree updated, is quite straightforward,some people choose to use the portsnap. The portsnap is a relatively new system forupdating the ports tree, securely. It has been included in the FreeBSD's base system,since FreeBSD 6.2. Hence, there is no need to install the software from the ports tree.The snapshots from the ports tree are updated every hour. It is signed to prevent anymalicious modifications and can be downloaded using the HTTP protocol.The portsnap has some advantages over the csup, which make life easier for thesystem administrator. The advantages are listed as follows:• All updates are cryptographically signed and are hence secure.• It requires zero configuration, and takes a couple of commands to update thewhole ports tree.• It is included in the FreeBSD's base system. No third-party software isrequired to be installed.• It uses less network and disk I/O resources as compared to theCVSup protocol.[ 35 ]