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Chapter 2SummaryWhen it comes to keeping the production or test systems up-to-date, every systemadministrator has his or her own strategy for upgradation. The FreeBSD gives afine-level of control over this process and covers almost every taste.This chapter explains the different methods such as synchronizing the source codeusing CVSup, so that you can selectively build and install or upgrade any part ofthe FreeBSD. This includes rebuilding a single system binary from the source code,to rebuilding the customized kernels, and even rebuilding all nuts and bolts of thesystem from the source code. This will also let you perform major system upgrades(for example, from 7.x to 8.x) on the same system, without re-installing from theinstallation media or losing system configuration.You can also keep your ports tree up-to-date, by using the same technique that isused to keep the source tree updated.As you have also seen the binary update methods, you do not need to go throughthe lengthy process of rebuilding the different parts of the system from the sourcecode. The binary updates let you download and apply the binary patches against therunning system.[ 45 ]