pfBlockerNG or pfBlockerNG-devel?
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I know it's a typical question. It was last asked in 2020, though. But right now everything is the same for both packages - their version numbers and their dependencies version numbers. Can anyone shed some light about the differences between them and which should I install? I am on 2,7.2 CE.
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@pfpv I believe that they are the same for now, but may not necessarily be in the future. Although I'm not certain. Here are two threads about the same question, both coming down on the "use pfBlockerNG-devel" side, but also both rather old . . .
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/156604/pfblockerng-vs-pfblockerng-devel/7
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/hin7iu/pfblockerng_vs_pfblockerngdevel/ -
@TheNarc, yes, that exactly what I found when I googled before posting. Both links are from 2020. I guess I'll go with devel. Thanks.
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@pfpv https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/releases/23-01.html#general
“The pfBlockerNG package has been updated to match pfBlockerNG-devel. After upgrade it is safe to uninstall pfBlockerNG-devel (keeping settings) and install pfBlockerNG instead.”Same for 2.7 though I don’t think it made the release notes. They are supposedly identical though I think non devel fixes a typo. At least in the Plus branches.
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@pfpv good choice.
https://www.patreon.com/pfBlockerNG
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@cyberconsultants said in pfBlockerNG or pfBlockerNG-devel?:
@pfpv good choice.
Can you share why? I suppose -devel was a good choice.
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@SteveITS, I originally thought to go with devel because of anticipations that it may receive updates earlier, be it a good or bad thing. Was it like this historically? Based on your comment the non-devel option is the same.
Why are there two packages for the same product? Are they handled by different people? It's quite confusing. Is devel the same as beta?
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@pfpv -devel is maintained by pfBNG's creator, BBcan177.
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@pfpv the -devel version was several years ahead and pretty much what everyone used. At one point it was the only one that worked for us for MaxMind.
Eventually they just cloned -devel to the regular branch as I noted. I’m not sure how development will be handled as there hasn’t been much and I think the changes have just been applied to both. From the name one would assume -devel is the beta/devel branch.
Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
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it should be noted that neither package is officially supported (running Plus or otherwise) by Netgate.
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@SteveITS definitely non-standard (if not outright confusing) naming convention, but i consider it more like the 'developer's branch' himself.
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@cyberconsultants Since it doesn’t get posted here much, http://pfblockerng.com/ redirects to Patreon.
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@BBcan177 said in pfBlockerNG v3.2.0_9:
Both versions are currently the same code but there are upcoming changes that will be pushed to devel first.
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@SteveITS, thanks. But I still can't wrap my head around why there are two versions of the same package. It's confusing, and the other such package is haproxy that also has identical version numbers at the moment. Why can't we have single version packages? Maybe it should be a rule?
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@pfpv said in pfBlockerNG or pfBlockerNG-devel?:
why there are two versions of the same package
Originally, the -devel version was basically an ongoing public beta/development version and original was more stagnant. At one point a few years ago after some MaxMind changes we couldn't get the non-devel to work with it, so switched all our clients to -devel, and around that point (?) I think the maintainer had recommended to just use -devel anyway. Or at least others did. So many were just using -devel along the way.
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