Rakhesh Sasidharan <rakhesh@rakhesh.com> writes:

> I meant keeping NetBSD up-to-date as usual. I'd assume through cvsup
> etc, following this NetBSD-4 branch. (I'm not sure how exactly one
> would keep up-to-date, hence this vague description).

Yes, cvsup or simply using anonymous cvs to get sources.  Then
rebuilding and reinstalling from time to time.

> So what I understand is that if I install one of the daily ISOs from
> the NetBSD-4 branch and then keep updating it through cvsup or
> whatever, when NetBSD-4 final is released I won't have to do anything
> extra. Right?

That's right.  Of course, for those doing source updates along the
branch the, release is just a special point - you'd most likely keep
following the post-release changes.

> Possibly a naive/ uninformed question: One updates NetBSD by
> downloading the source code changes and then compiling the whole
> system, right? Would that mean a lot of compiling daily since there
> would be updates every day ...?

It takes about 2+ hours on a 3.4 GHz P4 with modern disks and 1-2 GB
memory, when building from scratch.  Subsequent builds are much faster
because only things that need rebuilding are built (via make depend
rules).  But there's no reason to update every day.  Once a week is
usually plenty.