When I first started to use OpenBSD, I thought it was a real drag to have to use floppies to install and use the OS, especially since I was early in my learning curve, and downloading -current and reinstalling every other day or so. Besides, I like to live on the bleeding edge of technology, and being the instant-gratification type, I hate waiting the 10-15 minutes it takes to download i386-current (awww...). Worse, I work in a Windows world, which just ain't gonna change, and you can't do an install using Samba from a boot floppy. Well, at least I can't.

However, just because I live in a Windows world doesn't mean that I can't make things work. Fortunately, other people like to port stuff to Windows that used to only live in the Unix world, so I no longer have to have a Linux box laying around just to create boot CDs.

A side note: OpenBSD is funded through purchases from their web site. Don't think that just because you don't have to buy the CD means that you shouldn't. If you don't want another jewel case laying around gathering dust, buy a few T-shirts or a poster or something.

Now that that's out of the way, the first problem I wanted to solve was how to get OpenBSD downloaded on a regular basis, so I could track changes without clogging my bandwidth during the day and getting my users mad. Happily, I had just finished figuring out the Mirror package (http://sunsite.org.uk/packages/mirror/) for copying my corporate support FTP site locally. Mirror uses Perl to compare the local files to the FTP site's files, and download only the changes. That's certainly more polite than FTPing the whole thing, but keep in mind that you're sharing bandwidth, so don't download crap you don't need. At any rate, here's my mirror command file:

package=bsdcurrent
	comment=OpenBSD -current
	site=ftp.openbsd.org
	# where to start pulling files back from 
	remote_dir=/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/i386
	remote_user=ftp
	remote_password=root@
	#passive_ftp=true
	#remote_fs=dosish
	update_log=mirrorlog.txt
	# where to put the files on your machine 
	local_dir=C:\OpenBSD\2.8\i386
	# 
package=bsdpack
	comment=OpenBSD Packages
	site=ftp.openbsd.org
	# where to start pulling files back from 
	remote_dir=/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/packages/i386
	remote_user=ftp
	remote_password=root@
	#passive_ftp=true
	#remote_fs=dosish
	update_log=mirrorlog1.txt
	# where to put the files on your machine 
	local_dir=C:\OpenBSD\2.8\packages\i386
	# 
		

As you've probably guessed by now, you need to edit that a little to reflect your machine's local paths. To run it, save that in a file called mirror.obsd, and run:

C:\Perl\bin\perl mirror mirror.obsd

via Windows Scheduler or whatever cron-equivalent you like.

You can also make a bootable CD if you'd like.