ZFS Boot Environments for FreeBSD-Current

zfs-boot-envirnments.md

Quick HOWTO on creating "known good" states using ZFS Boot Environments

One-time git setup

su -l root
pkg install git -y
cd /usr && git clone https://git.freebsd.org/src.git src/

Re-occuring steps

• Update source code

cd /usr/src
git pull
less UPDATING  #Optional

• Build World and kernel, then install new kernel, reboot

make -j22 buildworld && make -j22 kernel
shutdown -r now

• Install world and final reboot

cd /usr/src
etcupdate -p
make installworld
etcupdate -B
etcupdate diff  #Only if you want to inspect user config deltas
shutdown -r now
pkg update && pkg upgrade  #Optional updates to packages

• If your system booted normally and acts well, create a new snapshot and boot environment in ZFS

bectl list
ver="`uname -v | cut -d ' ' -f 4 | sed s/://g`"
bectl create $ver

version string comes from git commit count and hash prefix

• e.g. main-n275893-717adecbbb52
• See /usr/src/sys/conf/newvers.sh
  • main = branch (where main = FreeBSD current / tip / head)
  • n275893 = n + git rev-list --count --first-parent HEAD to get the count of commits
  • 717adecbbb52 = hash prefix of the last commit