On Wed, 1 Jan 2003 16:27:49 -0500
"Felix Zaslavskiy" <felix@students.poly.edu> wrote:

> I am a bit confused and could someone help me get this cleared up.

[ I think we should improve documentation in the website about this... ]

> My goal is to have the most reacent pached up netbsd1.6 release at this
> point and i also want to have sources for the libraries available so that
> they can be used for debuging purposes. I will be needing to rebuild the
> kernel from the source to reconfigure it.

A release is the same forever. It will not change. If you want to track the
stable version, then you need the 1.6 branch of sources, that can be retrived
with CVS using -rnetbsd-1-6. You will notice that the kernel says 1.6_STABLE
when you rebuild it from these sources.

> I will also need to be able to
> upgrade to 1.7 with the least hastle.

When 1.7 is out, you should be able to unpack new sets over your system and
update /etc accordingly.

> Now my question is this.  The files in ftp.netbsd.org/pub/netbsd-1.6 are
> they the same as /netbsd-release-1.6 ?

Yes, NetBSD-X.Y.Z directories contain releases, not snapshots of current
sources.

>  Where can i download the latest 1.6
> version of sources and binaries ?

Sources: CVS, Sup... see the mirrors page on the website.
Binaries: Try here: ftp://releng.netbsd.org/

> The netbsd-current from what i understand is what is going to become 1.7

Yes

> My system is not in use just now and since i be putting in different
> hardrive i think i will just install everything fresh.  What should i do
> download the sources for current and build them or is it safe to use the 1.6
> as it was released that i still have on CD ?

And my question is: *why* do you want current? If you want a stable machine,
install the 1.6 release you have on CD and then update it to 1.6_STABLE.
(Note that you can run a current pkgsrc on this installation ;)

> how is cvs come into play here.  from what i understand it is only for the
> current branch.

No. As said, all branches are in CVS.

Hope this helps