---
title: "FreeBSD/alpha 4.6-RELEASE Release Notes"
sidenav: download
---

++++


        <h3 class="CORPAUTHOR">The FreeBSD Project</h3>

        <p class="COPYRIGHT">Copyright &copy; 2000, 2001, 2002 by
        The FreeBSD Documentation Project</p>

        <p class="PUBDATE">$FreeBSD:
        src/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/relnotes/common/new.sgml,v
        1.22.2.249 2002/06/02 16:35:29 bmah Exp $<br>
        </p>

        <div>
          <div class="ABSTRACT">
            <a name="AEN11"></a>

            <p>The release notes for FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE contain a
            summary of the changes made in the FreeBSD base system
            since 4.5-RELEASE. Both changes for kernel and userland
            are listed, as well as applicable security advisories
            for the base system that were issued since the last
            release. Some brief remarks on upgrading are also
            presented.</p>
          </div>
        </div>
        <hr>
      </div>

      <div class="TOC">
        <dl>
          <dt><b>Table of Contents</b></dt>

          <dt>1 <a href="#AEN13">Introduction</a></dt>

          <dt>2 <a href="#AEN21">What's New</a></dt>

          <dd>
            <dl>
              <dt>2.1 <a href="#KERNEL">Kernel Changes</a></dt>

              <dd>
                <dl>
                  <dt>2.1.1 <a href="#AEN51">Processor/Motherboard
                  Support</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.2 <a href="#AEN57">Boot Loaders</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.3 <a href="#AEN62">Network Interface
                  Support</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.4 <a href="#AEN125">Network
                  Protocols</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.5 <a href="#AEN142">Disks and
                  Storage</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.6 <a href="#AEN163">Filesystems</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.7 <a href="#AEN166">PCCARD
                  Support</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.8 <a href="#AEN169">Multimedia
                  Support</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.1.9 <a href="#AEN178">Contributed
                  Software</a></dt>
                </dl>
              </dd>

              <dt>2.2 <a href="#SECURITY">Security
              Advisories</a></dt>

              <dt>2.3 <a href="#USERLAND">Userland Changes</a></dt>

              <dd>
                <dl>
                  <dt>2.3.1 <a href="#AEN465">Contributed
                  Software</a></dt>

                  <dt>2.3.2 <a href="#AEN513">Ports/Packages
                  Collection</a></dt>
                </dl>
              </dd>

              <dt>2.4 <a href="#AEN520">Release Engineering and
              Integration</a></dt>
            </dl>
          </dd>

          <dt>3 <a href="#AEN531">Upgrading from previous releases
          of FreeBSD</a></dt>
        </dl>
      </div>

      <div class="SECT1">
        <hr>

        <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="AEN13">1 Introduction</a></h1>

        <p>This document contains the release notes for FreeBSD
        4.6-RELEASE on the Alpha/AXP hardware platform. It
        describes new features of FreeBSD that have been added (or
        changed) since 4.5-RELEASE. It also provides some notes on
        upgrading from previous versions of FreeBSD.</p>

        <p>This distribution of FreeBSD 4.6-RELEASE is a release
        distribution. It can be found at <a href=
        "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases" target=
        "_top">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases</a> or
        any of its mirrors. More information on obtaining this (or
        other) release distributions of FreeBSD can be found in the
        <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"
        target="_top">``Obtaining FreeBSD''</a> appendix in the <a
        href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/" target=
        "_top">FreeBSD Handbook</a>.</p>
      </div>

      <div class="SECT1">
        <hr>

        <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="AEN21">2 What's New</a></h1>

        <p>This section describes the most user-visible new or
        changed features in FreeBSD since 4.5-RELEASE. Typical
        release note items document new drivers or hardware
        support, new commands or options, major bugfixes, or
        contributed software upgrades. Security advisories for the
        base system that were issued after 4.5-RELEASE are also
        listed.</p>

        <div class="SECT2">
          <hr>

          <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="KERNEL">2.1 Kernel
          Changes</a></h2>

          <p>The kernel dump device can now be set via the <tt
          class="VARNAME">dumpdev</tt> loader tunable. As a result,
          it is now possible to obtain crash dumps from panics
          during the late stages of kernel initialization (before
          the system enters into single-user mode).</p>

          <p>The <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=snp&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">snp</span>(4)</span></a> device is no
          longer static and can now be compiled as a module.</p>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN51">2.1.1
            Processor/Motherboard Support</a></h3>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN57">2.1.2 Boot
            Loaders</a></h3>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN62">2.1.3 Network
            Interface Support</a></h3>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=an&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">an</span>(4)</span></a> driver now
            supports Cisco LEAP, as well as the ``Home'' WEP key.
            The Linux Aironet utilities are now supported under
            emulation.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dc&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">dc</span>(4)</span></a> driver now has
            support for VLANs.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=fpa&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">fpa</span>(4)</span></a> driver now
            works on Alpha machines.</p>

            <p>The my driver, which supports the Myson Fast
            Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet adapters, has been
            added.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wi&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">wi</span>(4)</span></a> driver now has
            support for Prism II and Prism 2.5-based NICs.
            104/128-bit WEP now works on Prism cards.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wi&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">wi</span>(4)</span></a> driver now
            supports using a FreeBSD host as a wireless access
            point. This functionality can be enabled using the <tt
            class="LITERAL">mediaopt hostap</tt> option of <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ifconfig&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">ifconfig</span>(8)</span></a>. This
            feature requires a wireless adapter based on the Prism
            II chipset.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=wi&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">wi</span>(4)</span></a> driver now has
            support for <b class=
            "APPLICATION">bsd-airtools</b>.</p>

            <p>The xe driver can now be built as a module.</p>

            <p>Selected network drivers now implement a
            semi-polling mode, which makes systems much more
            resilient to attacks and overloads. To enable polling,
            the following options are required in a kernel
            configuration file:</p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
    options DEVICE_POLLING
    options HZ=1000 # not compulsory but strongly recommended
</pre>
            The <tt class="VARNAME">kern.polling.enable</tt> sysctl
            variable will then activate polling mode; with the <tt
            class="VARNAME">kern.polling.user_frac</tt> sysctl
            indicating the percentage of CPU time to be reserved
            for userland. The devices initially supporting polling
            are <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dc&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">dc</span>(4)</span></a>, <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=fxp&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">fxp</span>(4)</span></a>, <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rl&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">rl</span>(4)</span></a>, and <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sis&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">sis</span>(4)</span></a>. More details
            can be found in the <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=polling&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">polling</span>(4)</span></a> manual
            page.<br>
            <br>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN125">2.1.4 Network
            Protocols</a></h3>

            <p><a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bridge&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">bridge</span>(4)</span></a> now has
            better support for multiple, fully-independent bridging
            clusters, and is much more stable in the presence of
            dynamic attachments and detatchments. Full support for
            VLANs is also supported.</p>

            <p>A bug in the IPsec processing for IPv4, which caused
            the inbound SPD checks to be ignored, has been
            fixed.</p>

            <p>A new ng_eiface netgraph module has been added,
            which appears as an Ethernet interface but delivers its
            Ethernet frames to a Netgraph hook.</p>

            <p>A new <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ng_etf&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">ng_etf</span>(4)</span></a> netgraph
            node allows Ethernet type packets to be filtered to
            different hooks depending on ethertype.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tcp&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">tcp</span>(4)</span></a> syncache
            implementation had a bug that could cause kernel
            panics; this has been fixed.</p>

            <p>The TCP implementation now properly ignores packets
            addressed to IP-layer broadcast addresses.</p>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN142">2.1.5 Disks and
            Storage</a></h3>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ahc&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">ahc</span>(4)</span></a> driver was
            synchronized with the version from FreeBSD -CURRENT as
            of 29 April 2002.</p>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ata&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">ata</span>(4)</span></a> driver was
            synchronized with the driver from FreeBSD -CURRENT as
            of 18 March 2002.</p>

            <div class="IMPORTANT">
              <blockquote class="IMPORTANT">
                <p><b>Important:</b> Some users have experienced
                problems during testing with ATA tagged queueing.
                Typical symptoms are read timeouts at boot time
                leading to a failure to mount the root filesystem.
                These problems have only appeared on systems having
                disks supporting tagged queueing attached to
                motherboard ATA controllers. As this feature is
                only supported by certain ATA hard disks, and must
                be enabled explicitly (by setting <tt class=
                "LITERAL">hw.ata.tags="1"</tt> in <tt class=
                "FILENAME">/boot/loader.conf</tt>), this should not
                pose a problem for a majority of users.</p>
              </blockquote>
            </div>

            <p>The <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ata&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">ata</span>(4)</span></a> driver now has
            support for creating, deleting, querying, and
            rebuilding ATA RAIDs under control of <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=atacontrol&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">atacontrol</span>(8)</span></a>.</p>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN163">2.1.6
            Filesystems</a></h3>

            <p>A bug was been fixed in soft updates that could
            cause occasional filesystem corruption if the system is
            shut down immediately after performing heavy filesystem
            activities, such as installing a new kernel or other
            software.</p>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN166">2.1.7 PCCARD
            Support</a></h3>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN169">2.1.8 Multimedia
            Support</a></h3>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN178">2.1.9 Contributed
            Software</a></h3>

            <div class="SECT4">
              <h4 class="SECT4"><a name="AEN180">2.1.9.1
              IPFilter</a></h4>

              <p><b class="APPLICATION">IPFilter</b> has been
              updated to 3.4.27.</p>
            </div>
          </div>
        </div>

        <div class="SECT2">
          <hr>

          <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="SECURITY">2.2 Security
          Advisories</a></h2>

          <p>An ``off-by-one'' bug has been fixed in <b class=
          "APPLICATION">OpenSSH</b>'s multiplexing code. This bug
          could have allowed an authenticated remote user to cause
          <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sshd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">sshd</span>(8)</span></a> to execute
          arbitrary code with superuser privileges, or allowed a
          malicious SSH server to execute arbitrary code on the
          client system with the privileges of the client user.
          (See security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:13.openssh.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:13</a>.)</p>

          <p>A programming error in <b class="APPLICATION">zlib</b>
          could result in attempts to free memory multiple times.
          The <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=malloc&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">malloc</span>(3)</span></a>/<a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=free&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">free</span>(3)</span></a> routines used
          in FreeBSD are not vulnerable to this error, but
          applications receiving specially-crafted blocks of
          invalid compressed data could be made to function
          incorrectly or abort. This <b class=
          "APPLICATION">zlib</b> bug has been fixed. For a
          workaround and solutions, see security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:18.zlib.v1.2.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:18</a>.</p>

          <p>Bugs in the TCP SYN cache (``syncache'') and SYN
          cookie (``syncookie'') implementations, which could cause
          legitimate TCP/IP traffic to crash a machine, have been
          fixed. For a workaround and patches, see security
          advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:20.syncache.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:20</a>.</p>

          <p>A routing table memory leak, which could allow a
          remote attacker to exhaust the memory of a target
          machine, has been fixed. A workaround and patches can be
          found in security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:21.tcpip.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:21</a>.</p>

          <p>A bug with memory-mapped I/O, which could cause a
          system crash, has been fixed. For more information about
          a solution, see security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:22.mmap.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:22</a>.</p>

          <p>A security hole, in which SUID programs could be made
          to read from or write to inappropriate files through
          manipulation of their standard I/O file descriptors, has
          been fixed. Information regarding a solution can be found
          in security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:23.stdio.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:23</a>.</p>

          <p>Some unexpected behavior could be allowed with <a
          href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=k5su&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">k5su</span>(8)</span></a> because it does
          not require that an invoking user be a member of the <tt
          class="GROUPNAME">wheel</tt> group when attempting to
          become the superuser (this is the case with <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=su&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">su</span>(1)</span></a>). To avoid this
          situation, <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=k5su&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">k5su</span>(8)</span></a> is now
          installed non-SUID by default (effectively disabling it).
          More information can be found in security advisory <a
          href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:24.k5su.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:24</a>.</p>

          <p>Multiple vulnerabilities were found in the <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=bzip2&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">bzip2</span>(1)</span></a> utility, which
          could allow files to be overwritten without warning or
          allow local users unintended access to files. These
          problems have been corrected with a new import of <b
          class="APPLICATION">bzip2</b>. For more information, see
          security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:25.bzip2.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:25</a>.</p>

          <p>A bug has been fixed in the implementation of the TCP
          SYN cache (``syncache''), which could allow a remote
          attacker to deny access to a service when accept filters
          (see <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=accept_filter&sektion=9&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">accept_filter</span>(9)</span></a>) were
          in use. This bug has been fixed; for more information,
          see security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:26.accept.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:26</a>.</p>

          <p>Due to a bug in <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">rc</span>(8)</span></a>'s use of shell
          globbing, users may be able to remove the contents of
          arbitrary files if <tt class=
          "FILENAME">/tmp/.X11-unix</tt> does not exist and the
          system can be made to reboot. This bug has been corrected
          (see security advisory <a href=
          "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/CERT/advisories/FreeBSD-SA-02:27.rc.asc"
           target="_top">FreeBSD-SA-02:27</a>).</p>
        </div>

        <div class="SECT2">
          <hr>

          <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="USERLAND">2.3 Userland
          Changes</a></h2>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=atacontrol&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">atacontrol</span>(8)</span></a> has been
          added to control various aspects of the <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ata&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ata</span>(4)</span></a> driver.</p>

          <p>On ATAPI CDROM drives, <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cdcontrol&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">cdcontrol</span>(1)</span></a> now
          supports a <tt class="LITERAL">speed</tt> command to set
          the maximum speed to be used by the drive.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ctags&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ctags</span>(1)</span></a> no longer
          creates a corrupt tags file if the source file used <tt
          class="LITERAL">//</tt> (C++-style) comments.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=dump&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">dump</span>(8)</span></a> now supplies
          progress information in its process title, useful for
          monitoring automated backups.</p>

          <p><tt class="FILENAME">/etc/rc.firewall</tt> and <tt
          class="FILENAME">/etc/rc.firewall6</tt> will no longer
          add their own hardcoded rules in the cases of a rules
          file in the <tt class="VARNAME">firewall_type</tt>
          variable or a non-existent firewall type. (The motivation
          for this change is to avoid acting on assumptions about a
          site's firewall policies.) In addition, the <tt class=
          "LITERAL">closed</tt> firewall type now works as
          documented in the <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc.firewall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">rc.firewall</span>(8)</span></a> manual
          page.</p>

          <p>The functionality of <tt class=
          "FILENAME">/etc/security</tt> has been been moved into a
          set of scripts under the <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=periodic&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">periodic</span>(8)</span></a> framework,
          to make local customization easier and more maintainable.
          These scripts now reside in <tt class=
          "FILENAME">/etc/periodic/security/</tt>.</p>

          <p>The <tt class="OPTION">ether</tt> address family of <a
          href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ifconfig&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ifconfig</span>(8)</span></a> has been
          changed to a more generic <tt class="OPTION">link</tt>
          family (<tt class="OPTION">ether</tt> is still accepted
          for backwards compatability).</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=fsdb&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">fsdb</span>(8)</span></a> now supports a
          <tt class="LITERAL">blocks</tt> command to list the
          blocks allocated by a particular inode.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ispppcontrol&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ispppcontrol</span>(8)</span></a> has
          been deleted, and its functionality has been folded into
          <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=spppcontrol&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">spppcontrol</span>(8)</span></a>.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=k5su&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">k5su</span>(8)</span></a> is no longer
          installed SUID <tt class="USERNAME">root</tt> by default.
          Users requiring this feature can either manually change
          the permissions on the <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=k5su&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">k5su</span>(8)</span></a> executable or
          add <tt class="LITERAL">ENABLE_SUID_K5SU=yes</tt> to <tt
          class="FILENAME">/etc/make.conf</tt> before a source
          upgrade.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ldd&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ldd</span>(1)</span></a> can now be used
          on shared libraries, in addition to executables.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=last&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">last</span>(1)</span></a> now supports a
          <tt class="OPTION">-y</tt> flag, which causes the year to
          be included in the session start time.</p>

          <p><tt class="FILENAME">libstand</tt> now has support for
          loading large kernels and modules split across several
          physical media.</p>

          <p><tt class="FILENAME">libusb</tt> has been renamed as
          <tt class="FILENAME">libusbhid</tt>, following NetBSD's
          naming conventions.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=lpd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">lpd</span>(8)</span></a> now recognizes
          the <tt class="OPTION">-s</tt> flag as the preferred
          synonym for <tt class="OPTION">-p</tt> (these flags cause
          <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=lpd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">lpd</span>(8)</span></a> not to open a
          socket for network print jobs).</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=lpd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">lpd</span>(8)</span></a> now implements a
          new <tt class="LITERAL">rc</tt> printcap option. When
          specified in a print queue for a remote host, boolean
          option causes <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=lpd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">lpd</span>(8)</span></a> to resend the
          data file for each copy the user requested via <tt class=
          "COMMAND">lpr -#<tt class=
          "REPLACEABLE"><i>n</i></tt></tt>.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ls&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ls</span>(1)</span></a> now accepts a <tt
          class="OPTION">-h</tt> flag, which when combined with the
          <tt class="OPTION">-l</tt> flag, causes file sizes to be
          printed with unit suffixes, such that the number of
          digits printed is fewer than four.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=m4&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">m4</span>(1)</span></a> now accepts a <tt
          class="OPTION">-s</tt> flag to cause it to emit <tt
          class="LITERAL">#line</tt> directives for use by <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cpp&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">cpp</span>(1)</span></a>.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mergemaster&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">mergemaster</span>(8)</span></a> now
          supports two new flags. The <tt class="OPTION">-p</tt>
          flag enables a ``pre-<tt class=
          "LITERAL">buildworld</tt>'' mode to compare files known
          to be essential to the success of the <tt class=
          "LITERAL">buildworld</tt> and <tt class=
          "LITERAL">installworld</tt> system updating steps. The
          <tt class="OPTION">-C</tt> flag, used after a successful
          <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mergemaster&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">mergemaster</span>(8)</span></a> run,
          compares options in <tt class=
          "FILENAME">/etc/rc.conf</tt> to the default options in
          <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/defaults/rc.conf</tt>.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ngctl&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ngctl</span>(8)</span></a> now supports a
          <tt class="OPTION">write</tt> command to send a data
          packet down a given hook.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=patch&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">patch</span>(1)</span></a> now accepts a
          <tt class="OPTION">-i</tt> command-line flag to read a
          patch from a file, rather than standard input.</p>

          <p>A <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pam_ssh&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">pam_ssh</span>(8)</span></a> module has
          been added to allow the use of SSH passphrases and
          keypairs for authentication. This module also handles
          session management by invoking <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ssh-agent&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ssh-agent</span>(1)</span></a>.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pr&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">pr</span>(1)</span></a> now supports the
          <tt class="OPTION">-f</tt> and <tt class="OPTION">-p</tt>
          flags to pause output going to a terminal.</p>

          <p>The <tt class="OPTION">-W</tt> option to <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ps&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">ps</span>(1)</span></a> (to extract
          information from a specified swap device) has been
          useless for some time; it has been removed.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=reboot&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">reboot</span>(8)</span></a> now takes a
          <tt class="OPTION">-k</tt> to specify the next kernel to
          boot.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sshd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">sshd</span>(8)</span></a> no longer emits
          fake S/Key challenges for users who do not have S/Key
          enabled. The prior behavior created confusing, useless
          one-time-password prompts when using some newer SSH
          clients to connect to a FreeBSD system.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sysinstall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">sysinstall</span>(8)</span></a> now has
          rudimentary support for retrieving packages from the
          correct volume of a multiple-volume installation (such as
          a multi-CD distribution).</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tftp&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">tftp</span>(1)</span></a> and <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tftpd&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">tftpd</span>(8)</span></a> now support
          IPv6.</p>

          <p>The <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=usbhidctl&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">usbhidctl</span>(1)</span></a> utility
          has been added to manipulate USB Human Interface
          Devices.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=uuencode&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">uuencode</span>(1)</span></a> and <a
          href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=uudecode&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">uudecode</span>(1)</span></a> now accept
          a <tt class="OPTION">-o</tt> option to set their output
          files. <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=uuencode&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">uuencode</span>(1)</span></a> can now be
          made to do base64 encoding when given the <tt class=
          "OPTION">-m</tt> flag, while <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=uudecode&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">uudecode</span>(1)</span></a> can now
          automatically decode base64 files.</p>

          <p><a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=watch&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">watch</span>(8)</span></a> now takes a
          <tt class="OPTION">-f</tt> option to specify a <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=snp&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">snp</span>(4)</span></a> device to
          use.</p>

          <p>Locales with names of the form <tt class=
          "LITERAL">*.EUC</tt> have been renamed to the form <tt
          class="LITERAL">*.euc??</tt>. For example, <tt class=
          "LITERAL">ja_JP.EUC</tt> has become <tt class=
          "LITERAL">ja_JP.eucJP</tt>. This improves locale name
          compatability with FreeBSD CURRENT, X11R6, and a number
          of other UNIX versions.</p>

          <p>The locale support was synchronized with the code from
          FreeBSD -CURRENT. This change brings support for the <tt
          class="LITERAL">LC_NUMERIC</tt>, <tt class=
          "LITERAL">LC_MONETARY</tt>, and <tt class=
          "LITERAL">LC_MESSAGES</tt> categories, as well as
          improvements to <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=strftime&sektion=3&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">strftime</span>(3)</span></a>, revised
          locale definitions, and improvement of the localization
          of many base system programs.</p>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN465">2.3.1 Contributed
            Software</a></h3>

            <p><b class="APPLICATION">BIND</b> has been updated to
            8.3.2-T1B.</p>

            <p><b class="APPLICATION">bzip2</b> has been updated to
            1.0.2.</p>

            <p><b class="APPLICATION">Heimdal Kerberos</b> has been
            updated to 0.4e.</p>

            <p>The <b class="APPLICATION">ISC DHCP</b> client has
            been updated to 3.0.1RC8.</p>

            <p><b class="APPLICATION">texinfo</b> has been updated
            to 4.1.</p>

            <p>The timezone database has been updated to the <tt
            class="FILENAME">tzdata2002c</tt> release.</p>

            <div class="SECT4">
              <hr>

              <h4 class="SECT4"><a name="AEN479">2.3.1.1
              Sendmail</a></h4>

              <p><b class="APPLICATION">sendmail</b> has been
              updated to 8.12.3. <a href=
              "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sendmail&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
              <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
              "REFENTRYTITLE">sendmail</span>(8)</span></a> is no
              longer installed as a set-user-ID <tt class=
              "USERNAME">root</tt> binary (now set-group-ID <tt
              class="GROUPNAME">smmsp</tt>). See <tt class=
              "FILENAME">/usr/src/contrib/sendmail/RELEASE_NOTES</tt>
              and <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/mail/README</tt> for
              more information.</p>

              <p>With this <b class="APPLICATION">sendmail</b>
              upgrade, multiple <b class="APPLICATION">sendmail</b>
              daemons (some required to handle outgoing mail) are
              started by <a href=
              "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
              <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
              "REFENTRYTITLE">rc</span>(8)</span></a>, even if the
              <tt class="VARNAME">sendmail_enable</tt> variable is
              set to <tt class="LITERAL">NO</tt>. To completely
              disable <b class="APPLICATION">sendmail</b>, <tt
              class="VARNAME">sendmail_enable</tt> must be set to
              <tt class="LITERAL">NONE</tt>. Alternatively, for
              systems using a different MTA, the <tt class=
              "VARNAME">mta_start_script</tt> variable can be used
              to point to a different startup script (more details
              can be found in <a href=
              "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=rc.sendmail&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
              <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
              "REFENTRYTITLE">rc.sendmail</span>(8)</span></a>).</p>

              <p>The permissions for <b class=
              "APPLICATION">sendmail</b> alias and map databases
              built via <tt class=
              "FILENAME">/etc/mail/Makefile</tt> now default to
              mode 0640 to protect against a file locking local
              denial of service. It can be changed by setting the
              new <tt class="VARNAME">SENDMAIL_MAP_PERMS</tt> <tt
              class="FILENAME">make.conf</tt> option.</p>

              <p>The permissions for the <b class=
              "APPLICATION">sendmail</b> statistics file, <tt
              class="FILENAME">/var/log/sendmail.st</tt>, have been
              changed from mode 0644 to mode 0640 to protect
              against a file locking local denial of service.</p>
            </div>
          </div>

          <div class="SECT3">
            <hr>

            <h3 class="SECT3"><a name="AEN513">2.3.2 Ports/Packages
            Collection</a></h3>

            <p>The Ports Collection infrastructure now uses <b
            class="APPLICATION">XFree86</b> 4.2.0 as the default
            version of the X Window System for the purposes of
            satisfying dependencies. To return to using <b class=
            "APPLICATION">XFree86</b> 3.3.6, add the following line
            to <tt class="FILENAME">/etc/make.conf</tt>:</p>
<pre class="PROGRAMLISTING">
    XFREE86_VERSION=3
</pre>
          </div>
        </div>

        <div class="SECT2">
          <hr>

          <h2 class="SECT2"><a name="AEN520">2.4 Release
          Engineering and Integration</a></h2>

          <p><b class="APPLICATION">XFree86</b> 4.2.0 is now the
          default version of the X Window System supported by <a
          href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sysinstall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">sysinstall</span>(8)</span></a>. It
          installs <b class="APPLICATION">XFree86</b> as a set of
          standard binary packages, so the usual package utilities
          such as <a href=
          "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=pkg_info&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
          <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
          "REFENTRYTITLE">pkg_info</span>(1)</span></a> can be used
          to examine/manipulate its components.</p>
        </div>
      </div>

      <div class="SECT1">
        <hr>

        <h1 class="SECT1"><a name="AEN531">3 Upgrading from
        previous releases of FreeBSD</a></h1>

        <p>If you're upgrading from a previous release of FreeBSD,
        you generally will have three options:</p>

        <ul>
          <li>
            <p>Using the binary upgrade option of <a href=
            "http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sysinstall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+4.6-RELEASE">
            <span class="CITEREFENTRY"><span class=
            "REFENTRYTITLE">sysinstall</span>(8)</span></a>. This
            option is perhaps the quickest, although it presumes
            that your installation of FreeBSD uses no special
            compilation options.</p>
          </li>

          <li>
            <p>Performing a complete reinstall of FreeBSD.
            Technically, this is not an upgrading method, and in
            any case is usually less convenient than a binary
            upgrade, in that it requires you to manually backup and
            restore the contents of <tt class="FILENAME">/etc</tt>.
            However, it may be useful in cases where you want (or
            need) to change the partitioning of your disks.</p>
          </li>

          <li>
            <p>From source code in <tt class=
            "FILENAME">/usr/src</tt>. This route is more flexible,
            but requires more disk space, time, and more technical
            expertise. Upgrading from very old versions of FreeBSD
            may be problematic; in cases like this, it is usually
            more effective to perform a binary upgrade or a
            complete reinstall.</p>
          </li>
        </ul>
        <br>
        <br>

        <p>Please read the <tt class="FILENAME">INSTALL.TXT</tt>
        file for more information, preferably <span class=
        "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">before</i></span> beginning
        an upgrade. If you are upgrading from source, please be
        sure to read <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/src/UPDATING</tt> as
        well.</p>

        <p>Finally, if you want to use one of various means to
        track the -STABLE or -CURRENT branches of FreeBSD, please
        be sure to consult the <a href=
        "http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/current-stable.html"
        target="_top">``-CURRENT vs. -STABLE''</a> section of the
        <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/" target=
        "_top">FreeBSD Handbook</a>.</p>

        <div class="IMPORTANT">
          <blockquote class="IMPORTANT">
            <p><b>Important:</b> Upgrading FreeBSD should, of
            course, only be attempted after backing up <span class=
            "emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">all</i></span> data and
            configuration files.</p>
          </blockquote>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <hr>

    <p align="center"><small>This file, and other release-related
    documents, can be downloaded from <a href=
    "ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases</a>.</small></p>

    <p align="center"><small>For questions about FreeBSD, read the
    <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">documentation</a>
    before contacting &#60;<a href=
    "mailto:questions@FreeBSD.org">questions@FreeBSD.org</a>&#62;.</small></p>

    <p align="center"><small>For questions about this
    documentation, e-mail &#60;<a href=
    "mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">doc@FreeBSD.org</a>&#62;.</small></p>
    <br>
    <br>
++++


