Tip: Updating FreeBSD with freebsd-update with full filesystem

My old 266 Mhz Celeron (soon to be replaced my an ASUS I220GC motherboard with integrated Celern 220 CPU) is installed on a 4GB HDD which leaves about 297Mb for the /var filesytem.

freebsd-update, the base tool to perform binary system updates, uses by default the /var filesystem. While updating to the recent FreeBSD 7.1-RC1 I couldn't finish the update due to a full filesystem.

Here's how solve the issue and fully update the system:

• % su
• # freebsd-update -d /path/to/big/path/directory/ upgrade -r 7.1-RC1
• # freebsd-update -d /path/to/big/path/directory/ install
• # shutdown -r now
• # freebsd-update -d /path/to/big/path/directory/ install
• # shutdown -r now

In other words, simply use freebsd-update's -d option. man freebsd-update and http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2008-December/047014.html for more info.

Happy updating ;)