Upgrading OpenBSD

An OpenBSD upgrade has three distinct phases: installing the newer versions of binaries and files on disk, updating the local configuration information, and updating obsolete add-on software packages. Each is a separate process and must be handled independently.

Upgrade Prerequisites

Before you upgrade, back up any data you actually care about. The upgrade process extracts new files over the existing system, and it's entirely possible that you might overwrite something important. Back up your data!

To update your configuration files you must have the system source code for the version you are upgrading to available in /usr/src, even if you upgrade from a CD-ROM or over the network. If space is at a premium you could install only the contents of /usr/src/etc, but you must be able to compare the contents of your old /etc/ directory with what should be in the new version and make the appropriate changes. You can keep the source code for the old version of OpenBSD around if you wish, but it must not be under /usr/src.

Once you have backups and the system source installed, you need to decide which distribution sets you want to install during the upgrade. As a rule, you must install any distribution sets that were previously installed, but you can choose to install additional sets if you desire.