I've used FreeBSD for about 5 years - server/Desktop - and I've tended to take my apt-get/yum upgrade everything habits along with me ( I admin Debian/RHEL/Cent boxes as well -- I know, I know ...should be more discerning regardless of platform ). So it's usually a:

```
portsnap fetch
portsnap update
portmanager -u

```

For the ports

Sometimes followed by a:

```
freebsd-update fetch
freebsd-update install

```

For the system ...etc. Then just clean up any messes afterwards ...if they occur.

This, I realize, is a fairly excessive un-BSD way to do things. What is your philosophy for your BSD boxes? Do you run a portaudit/portversion -- check output then update (make deinstall ...etc) after careful consideration? 

I'm fairly new to OpenBSD, I confess. I see myself cvsupping the ports tree, running the "out of date" script, then just upgrading critical ports --- but leaving the kernel/binaries alone and just upgrading every six months. Do you patch/recompile/rebuild kernel, binaries --- why?

What's a conservative approach for critical services ( reasonably critical -- this ain't no bank or hospital ) on BSD boxes? Are you using a similar approach on your Linux boxes? I generally don't touch the kernel on any servers unless a security alert has stricken terror into my soul. 

Yeah, there's docs and books galore -- what do you people actually do? Assuming we know the basics -- what's the wisdom? Use cases/environments and scenarios vary, as do the stakes/stakeholders/users. Books and man pages cover tools and uses, but lack practical application. Recommend a book if you know of one that covers it!

Thanks for reading!

Bubnoff

**Conclusions ~**
Thanks to everyone who took the time to answer this post. My strategy overall is now to follow the mailing lists for both BSDs and be more selective/discerning with updating than I have been in the past.

FreeBSD ~
Portaudit is a good answer. With the mailing lists and diligent audits, I think this will serve well here. It's interesting the different emphasis on ports between OpenBSD verses FreeBSD.

OpenBSD ~
Will follow the mailing list and use the package tools ( pkg\_info and pkg\_add -u ) where deemed critical. Upgrades: Looks like you need to upgrade at least once a year. They support the newest release plus one back - so right now it's 4.8 and 4.7.

Thanks again.