Pkg update/upgrade vs. console/webgui updates

[kpa]

I hadn't updated my pfSense box in a while because I've been out of town for some weeks. Today I took a look at the updates and noticed that 2.3.4-p1 is available. I decided to "smooth out" the process by running "pkg update; pkg upgrade" on the console to first install any leftover updates that might have been pushed recently.

This didn't do what I expected. It offered me the full update set (the pkg packages) for 2.3.4 -> 2.3.4-p1 update and I could have let it install them but then I started thinking that maybe that's not the way to go and answered "no" to the prompt. I instead did the console update using option 13) and it all went fine.

So my question is: Would the "pkg update; pkg upgrade" have given me full 2.3.4-p1 equal to what you would get with the console or the webgui update?

If the answer is no then I think your update scheme is little bit broken because the system allows you to install updates that are not meant for the current version of pfSense installed but belong to the update set for the next available updated version of pfSense, in this case the next patchlevel -p1.

[Derelict]

Can only prevent so much foot-shooting at the shell prompt. It will let you XX -rf / too.

Supported update methods are via the webgui or console option 13.

[kpa]

Fair enough but pkg is the de facto package manager in FreeBSD and people coming from FreeBSD will expect it to install updates on pfSense as well.

[jimp]

The updates are delivered via pkg, so they have to show as being available that way. pfSense-upgrade does some extra things that make sure it all goes smoothly.

You could, in theory, update most if not all things via pkg, but it's not ideal to do it that way since the kernel package will be locked (which pkg tells you if you run it directly), and you could potentially have some weirdness with having a mismatched kernel and base.

For a minor update like 2.3.4 to 2.3.4-p1 it wouldn't cause you much if any harm to do it via pkg, but we still recommend using pfSense-upgrade.

And yes, pkg is the standard for FreeBSD but, though the pfSense distribution is based on FreeBSD, it is not FreeBSD, so expectations must be adjusted accordingly.