Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

Snapshots
Between formal releases of OpenBSD, snapshots are made available through the 
FTP sites
. As the name 
implies, these are builds of whatever code is in the tree at the instant the builder grabbed a copy of the 
code for that particular platform. Remember, on some platforms, it may be DAYS before the snapshot 
build is completed and put out for distribution. There is no promise that the snapshots are completely 
functional, or even install. Often, a change that needs to be tested may trigger snapshot creation. Some 
platforms have snapshots built on an almost daily basis, others will be much less frequent. If you desire 
to run -current, a recent snapshot is often all you need, and upgrading to a snapshot is a required starting 
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5 - Building the System from Source
point before attempting to build -current from source. 
It is sometimes asked if there is any way to get a copy of exactly the code used to build a snapshot. The 
answer is no. First, there is no significant benefit to this. Second, the snapshots are built as desired, as 
time permits, and as resources become available. On fast platforms, several snapshots may be released in 
one day. On slower platforms, it may take a week or more to build a snapshot. Providing tags or markers 
in the source tree for each snapshot would be quite impractical. Third, snapshots often contain 
experimental code that isn't yet committed to the tree. 
Upgrade vs. Update
You will often see references to "upgrading" and "updating" OpenBSD installs. Even though these 
words have similar meanings, they are used slightly differently in OpenBSD. 
Upgrading is the process of installing a newer version of OpenBSD, with new functionality. For 
example, going from v4.8 to v4.9, or going from the June 12th snapshot to the June 20th snapshot. When 
upgrading, you will typically have to consult either 
Following -current
 or the 
Upgrade guide
 (when 
changing releases) to make the changes required to run the upgraded version of OpenBSD. 
Updating is the process of applying patches to a system to improve the operation WITHOUT changing 
the basic functionality or binary compatibility. This is typically done by following the 
source patching 
process
 or by following the 
stable process
. When you "update" your system, it goes from a -release to a -
stable (or patched -release) of the same release version, for example, 4.9-release to 4.9-stable. You may 
then later update it to a newer -stable of the same release version. The update process is typically very 
painless, as no 
/etc
files or other system configurations need to be changed. 
So, you may install a system (for example, 4.7-release) from CD, then update it to 4.7-stable a few 
times, then upgrade it to 4.8-release from CD, and update that a few times before upgrading it again to 
the 4.9-release.