> I am a newbie in NetBSD and I just really wonder what's the differenc=
e =

> between netbsd-2, netbsd-2-0, netbsd-2-base and netbsd-2-0-base =

> branches?

Not all of these are branches, but all of them are symbolic CVS
tags.  Their meaning is:

Branch tags:

netbsd-2     Gets you what will become 2.1, 2.2 etc., currently 2.0_STA=
BLE
netbsd-2-0   Along this branch, 2.0.1, 2.0.2 has come, and 2.0.3
	     will come, and this gets you 2.0.2_STABLE at the moment

Static tags:

netbsd-2-base was the branch point for the netbsd-2 branch
netbsd-2-0-base was the branch point for the netbsd-2-0 branch

(For those who want to split hairs, this is slightly inaccurate
because we changed version numbering and branch naming scheme
between the initial branch point for what became 2.0 and the
release of 2.0, but for consistency with the future I'll let the
above stand -- if you substitute 3 for 2, it will be fully
correct but related to the 3.* series of releases.)

> I have just upgraded my system from netbsd 2.0 to netbsd 2.0.2
> using netbsd-2-0-2-RELEASE. So, if I want to update my netbsd
> system (some critical and security fixes), should I use just
> netbsd-2 branch?

Not quite.  If you are *only* interested in critical and security
fixes but otherwise want to keep your current code base, you
should update along the netbsd-2-0 branch.

If you also want minor functionality upgrades, but still stick to
the 2.x series of releases, you should update along the netbsd-2
branch.

> Is it possible to upgrade from netbsd 2.0 up to netbsd 3.0?

Yes, or, since 3.0 is not released yet, if you did this now, you
would be upgrading to 3.0_BETA.  The branch tag for doing that is
netbsd-3.

> Should I follow the ``Tracking NetBSD-current'' instructions
> then?

Mostly, except you would need to add "-r netbsd-3" to any "cvs
update" commands to get the code which will go into 3.0.
NetBSD-current is already at version 3.99.7.

A visit to

  http://www.netbsd.org/Releases/release-map.html

gives you this information in a little bit more verbose version,
plus shows a release graph for the 3.* series releases.

Regards,

- H=E5vard