Script to check if you are on the latest point release

[Alain De Vos]

Script checking if running kernel is point-release of git source,
cat checkit

#!/bin/sh

URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/refs/heads/releng/15.1/sys/conf/newvers.sh"

# 1. Fetch data from GitHub and evaluate assignments safely
REMOTE_DATA=$(wget -qO- "$URL")
eval "$(echo "$REMOTE_DATA" | grep -E '^(TYPE|REVISION|BRANCH)=')"

# 2. Get local version
LOCAL_VER=$(freebsd-version -k)

# 3. Format remote version exactly like local
REMOTE_VER="${REVISION}-${BRANCH}"

# 4. Print outputs
echo "Local Kernel:   $LOCAL_VER"
echo "GitHub Version: $TYPE $REMOTE_VER"

# 5. Pure shell string manipulation (Zero seds)
# Extracts everything after the last "-p"
LOCAL_PATCH="${LOCAL_VER##*-p}"
REMOTE_PATCH="${REMOTE_VER##*-p}"

# If no "-p" existed, the variable won't change; reset to 0
[ "$LOCAL_PATCH" = "$LOCAL_VER" ] && LOCAL_PATCH=0
[ "$REMOTE_PATCH" = "$REMOTE_VER" ] && REMOTE_PATCH=0

# 6. Final comparison
if [ "$REMOTE_PATCH" -gt "$LOCAL_PATCH" ]; then
    echo "Status:         NEWER AVAILABLE"
else
    echo "Status:         Up to date"
fi

 

[SirDice]

Kernel isn't always updated. So REVISION from newvers.sh might not match with your installed/running kernel.

# 2. Get local version
LOCAL_VER=$(freebsd-version -k)

Should be:

# 2. Get local version
LOCAL_VER=$(freebsd-version -u)

Because the userland patch version is ALWAYS updated.

 

[gotnull]

Nice Alain De Vos !!

You might avoid the hardcoded release number in the $URL.

CURRENT_VER=$(uname -r | cut -d- -f1)
URL="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/refs/heads/releng/$CURRENT_VER/sys/conf/newvers.sh"

Also wget isn't part of FreeBSD we can change it for fetch:

REMOTE_DATA=$(fetch -qo - "$URL")

Otherwise I really like it and it will certainly be useful, thank you

I wrote the same kind of script but it works only with freebsd-update so not for PKGBase system:

Post in thread 'Useful scripts'

Apr 21, 2025

In order to know if a system has the latest patch level one have to compare the output of the command freebsd-version -kru with what's on the mailing list, the FreeBSD news, the forum, or just blindly run freebsd-update fetch and wait few seconds/minutes to get an answer.
Then one day I found this page on the Wiki (thanks to the author of this article) that inspired me to write this script that basically just tells very quickly if the system is update or not, no need to check online by yourself anymore.
In case it's not clear yet, the goal is not to check if the system...

• gotnull

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PS:
Next time post it the script thread, it will be easier to find it after many years