Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

Upgrade your system to 
-current
. As all fixes are applied to the -current code base, updating your 
system to the latest snapshot is a very good way to apply fixed code. However, running -current is 
not for everyone. 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq10.html (18 of 32)9/4/2011 10:02:15 AM

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10 - System Management
●
Update your system to 
-stable
. This is done by fetching or updating your source tree using the 
appropriate -stable branch, and recompiling the kernel and userland files. Overall, this is probably 
the easiest way, though it takes longer (as the entire system gets recompiled) and a complete source 
checkout can take a long time if you have limited bandwidth available. 
●
Patch, compile and install individual impacted files. This is what we will use for our example 
below. While this requires less bandwidth and typically less time than an entire cvs(1) checkout/
update and source code compilation, this is sometimes the most difficult option, as there is no one 
universal set of instructions to follow. Sometimes you must patch, recompile and install one 
application, other times, you might have to recompile entire sections of the tree if the problem is in 
a library file. 
Again, patching individual files is not always simple, so give serious thought to following the 
-stable
 (or 
"patch") branch of OpenBSD. Mixing and matching of patching solutions can be done if you understand 
how everything works, but new users should pick one method and stick with it. 
How are "errata" patches different from what is in the CVS tree?
All patches posted to the 
errata web page
 are patches directly against the indicated release's source tree. 
Patches against the latest CVS tree might also include other changes that wouldn't be wanted on a release 
system. This is important: If you have installed a snapshot, checked out the source trees at the time you 
obtained that snapshot and attempt to patch it using a published patch, you may well find the patch doesn't 
apply, as that code may have changed.