FreeBSD STABLE, CURRENT and upgrading

Hi All,

I am using FreeBSD since 5.2 RELEASE and I am now running 5.2.1 RELEASE.
I upgraded between the two versions from scratch that means I backuped
the main configuration files and directories (like home), deleted the
old version, installed the new one and reconfigured the whole system.

As I see 5.3 is now coming up so I want to avoid this procedure.
I have read the handbook, the FAQs and Greg Lehey's book 'The complete
FreeBSD'.But I am still quite unsure/confused about some aspects of FreeBSD
philosophy.

1) CURRENT and STABLE

As I read in the FAQS there are two main development branches: STABLE
and CURRENT. At the moment the 4-STABLE is the STABLE-branch and the
5-CURRENT is the current brunch up to the point where it gets STABLE (I
think it is 5.3). Then the CURRENT branch will change to 6?
Is that right.

Then FreeBSD would have two STABLE branches (4 and 5) so what will then
be the difference between them? Or will the 4 branch be ended?
So I am not quiet sure about this terminology.

2) Updating 5.2.1
As far as I understood there are three parts of the system that have to
be upgraded:

kernel
userland
ports

So to do the first two ones I am going to use sysinstall (I use a slow
internet connection so I have to by the CDs with binary collection).
After userland and kernel have been upgraded I need to upgrade my
prts/packages.
Therefore I copy my binary packages (from the CDs) to
/usr/ports/packages/All and first run
portversion
and then
portupgrade -P

Is this all for now?

3) Get the latest security patches/packages
On the FreeBSD security page I have read about three
security patches for the 5.2.1 RELAESE. They only affected the kernel.
Running freebsd-update gave me a lot more security hints but for the
packages.
So am I right believing that the security patches only regard kernel
and to get the latest package-updates I have to run freebsd-update?
Or is there another possibility?

Thanx for your patience and help in advance

Oliver
--
.... don't touch the bang bang fruit
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