> I am trying to update to -current/i386 (from tar files of about 3
> weeks ago) and cannot quite seem to get it right.  In short, the
> problem is that compiling lots of the utilities leaves me with
> binaries that simply return with no errors, but they don't do
> anything.  No compilation errors occured, so I am at a loss.  Any help
> greatly appreciated.

You could try the binary snapshots.  Or, for the masochists out
there...

I've just done a source upgrade.  Yet again.  This is what I did. 
Thanks to Bernd Wiserner for his tips about ld.so, which seems to be
the problem you're having.  (Thanks also to Mike Long, for his tips
about not making profiled libs or man pages first time around.  I
haven't incorporated them here, but I will if anyone's interested).
 
The following instructions have helped other people upgrade to -current

[Remember to make yourself a new config (not config.old) kernel config file.]
[Make sure you have COMPAT_10 as part of your kernel config options.]
[This assumes that the -current source is in /usr/src]

(cd /usr/src/usr.sbin/config ; make && make install && make cleandir)
# if you don't do this, config of your kernel config file will
# fail with errors in files.i386

(cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gas ; make && make install && make cleandir)
# if you don't do this, you won't be able to build locore.s, with
# errors about cpuid instruction not found

(cd /sys/arch/i386/conf ; config MYKERNEL)
(cd /sys/arch/i386/compile/MYKERNEL ; make depend && make)
# copy  new kernel to /, and boot off it

(cd /usr/src/share/mk ; make install)
# if you don't do this, you'll get errors building gcc, when it
# doesn't know how to make the manual pages (don't know how to make gcc.0)

(cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/gcc2 ; make && make install && make cleandir)

# it was at this stage that I got REALLY fed up with the
# sh: warning: running as root with dot in PATH
(cd /usr/src/bin/sh ; make && make install &&  make cleandir)

# Bernd Wiserner says that the ld.so that will be built next will
# work only with libc.so.12.0, not with libc.so.12.3
# His instructions to make a working ld.so follow:
# Do NOT run ldconfig while doing the folowing 5 lines ...
(cd /usr/src/include ; make && make install)
cp -p /usr/libexec/ld.so /usr/libexec/ld.so.good
(cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld ; make && make install && make cleandir)
cp -p /usr/libexec/ld.so.good /usr/libexec/ld.so
(cd /usr/src/lib ; make && make install && make cleandir)
# Then build ld.so again ...
(cd /usr/src/gnu/usr.bin/ld ; make && make install && make cleandir)  
# Thanks, Bernd...

# and now back to the beginning and make the world
(cd /usr/src/bin ; make && make install && make cleandir)
(cd /usr/src/sbin ; make && make install && make cleandir)

mkdir /usr/share/doc/usd/13.viref
# otherwise "make install" in /usr/src/usr.bin will fail because
# the destination directory doesn't exist - from Tom Thai

# if you're using the obj directory hierarchy, use
(cd /usr/src/usr.bin/lex ; cp initscan.c obj/scan.c)
# otherwise (i.e. no obj directory hierarchy)
(cd /usr/src/usr.bin/lex ; cp initscan.c scan.c)
# if you don't, then lex won't be built

(cd /usr/src/usr.bin ; make && make install && make cleandir)
(cd /usr/src/usr.sbin ; make && make install && make cleandir)
(cd /usr/src/libexec ; make && make install && make cleandir)
(cd /usr/src/gnu ; make && make install && make cleandir)
(cd /usr/src/share ; make && make install && make cleandir)

mkdir /usr/share/doc/usd/30.rogue /usr/share/doc/usd/31.trek
# otherwise "make install" in /usr/src/games will fail

(cd /usr/src/games ; make && make install && make cleandir)

Cheers,
Alistair
--
Alistair G. Crooks (agc@uts.amdahl.com)			   +44 125 234 6377
Amdahl European HQ, Dogmersfield Park, Hartley Wintney, Hants RG27 8TE, UK.
[These are only my opinions, and certainly not those of Amdahl Corporation]