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1250746Sgabor<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> 2250746Sgabor<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V4.5-Based Extension//EN" 3250746Sgabor "../../../share/xml/freebsd45.dtd" [ 4250746Sgabor<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN" "release.ent"> 5250746Sgabor %release; 676082Sbmah]> 776082Sbmah 876082Sbmah<article> 982666Sbmah <articleinfo> 1082666Sbmah <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1181327Sbmah 1282666Sbmah <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 1381484Sbmah 1482666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 250746 2013-05-17 18:53:29Z gabor $</pubdate> 1581327Sbmah 1682666Sbmah <copyright> 1782666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 1882666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 1988820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 20108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 21130964Sden <year>2004</year> 22145265Shrs <year>2005</year> 23165592Sbmah <year>2006</year> 24171891Sbmah <year>2007</year> 25179456Shrs <year>2008</year> 26134817Shrs <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 2782666Sbmah </copyright> 28119884Ssimon 29119884Ssimon <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 30119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 31119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 32119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 33119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 34119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 35119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 3682666Sbmah </articleinfo> 3781327Sbmah 3882666Sbmah <abstract> 3982666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 4088959Sbmah &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 4188959Sbmah obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 4288959Sbmah Project, and pointers to some other sources of 4388959Sbmah information.</para> 4482666Sbmah </abstract> 4581327Sbmah 46109143Sroam <sect1 id="intro"> 4782666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 4881327Sbmah 4982666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 5082666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 5181327Sbmah 5282666Sbmah <sect2> 5382666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 5481327Sbmah 5582666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 56171891Sbmah AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 57171891Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 58171891Sbmah Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 59171891Sbmah NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 60171891Sbmah and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 61179456Shrs for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 62179456Shrs &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 6382666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 6482666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 6582666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 6682666Sbmah Provision.</para> 6781327Sbmah 6882666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 6982666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 7082666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 7182666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 7282666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 7382666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 7482666Sbmah all works.</para> 7581327Sbmah 7682666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 7782666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 78114787Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 7982666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 8082666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 8182666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 8282666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 8382666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 8482666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 85114787Sbmah commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 8682666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 8782666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 8882666Sbmah </sect2> 8982666Sbmah 9082666Sbmah <sect2> 9182666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 9282666Sbmah 93250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 94134116Shrs and various other users who want to get involved with the 95134116Shrs ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 96134116Shrs tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 97134116Shrs advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 98134116Shrs work-in-progress.</para> 99134116Shrs 100250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 101134116Shrs technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 102134116Shrs ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 103134116Shrs discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 104134116Shrs 105250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 106134116Shrs in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 107134116Shrs (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 108134116Shrs Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 109134116Shrs checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 110134116Shrs 111250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 11282666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 11382666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 11482666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 11582666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 11682666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 11781327Sbmah 118250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 11982666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 12083425Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 12182666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 12282666Sbmah 123250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 12482666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 12592482Smurray (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 12682666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 12782666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 12882666Sbmah 129250746Sgabor <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 13082666Sbmah has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 13182666Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and 13282666Sbmah dependability.</para> 13382666Sbmah </sect2> 13482666Sbmah </sect1> 13581339Sbmah 136109143Sroam <sect1 id="obtain"> 13782666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 13881327Sbmah 13982666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 14088959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 14182666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 14282666Sbmah installation.</para> 14381327Sbmah 14482666Sbmah <sect2> 14582666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 14681327Sbmah 14782666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 14882666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 14982666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 15082666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 15182666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 15282666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 153171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 15481327Sbmah 15582666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 15682666Sbmah project are listed in the <ulink 157134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 158134817Shrs &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 15982666Sbmah </sect2> 16081327Sbmah 16182666Sbmah <sect2> 16282666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 16381327Sbmah 16482666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 16582666Sbmah optional packages from <ulink 16682666Sbmah url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 16782666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 16882666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 16981327Sbmah 17082666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 17182666Sbmah <ulink 172134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 173223457Shrs Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook. 17482666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 17582666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 17681327Sbmah 17782666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 17882666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 17991249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 18091249Skeramida information for mirror sites at the <ulink 181240508Sgabor url="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 182134817Shrs &os;</ulink> article.</para> 18381327Sbmah 184171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 185171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 186171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 187171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 188171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 189171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 19082666Sbmah </sect2> 19182666Sbmah </sect1> 19281327Sbmah 19382666Sbmah <sect1 id="contacting"> 19482666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 19581327Sbmah 19682666Sbmah <sect2> 19782666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 19881327Sbmah 19982666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 20082666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 20181327Sbmah 20283425Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 20382666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 20482666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 20593244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 20681327Sbmah 20788959Sbmah <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 20888959Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 20982666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 21082666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 21182666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 21281327Sbmah 21382666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 21488959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 21588959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 21688959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 21782666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 21881327Sbmah 21982666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 220134817Shrs wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 221134817Shrs &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 22282666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 22382666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 22482666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 225114787Sbmah obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 226134817Shrs url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 22782666Sbmah lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 22881327Sbmah 22982666Sbmah <important> 23082666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 231114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 23282666Sbmah instead.</para> 23382666Sbmah </important> 23482666Sbmah </sect2> 23581327Sbmah 23682666Sbmah <sect2> 23782666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 23881327Sbmah 23982666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 24088959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 24182666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 24282666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 24381327Sbmah 24482666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 24582666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 246114787Sbmah command. 24782666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 24882666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 24982666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 25082666Sbmah possible. <ulink 25182666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 25282666Sbmah of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 25382666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 25482666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 25581327Sbmah 25682666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 25782666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 25882666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 25982666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 26082666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 26181327Sbmah 26288959Sbmah <para>For more information, <ulink 263134840Sden url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 264134817Shrs &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 26588959Sbmah site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 26688959Sbmah effective problem reports.</para> 26782666Sbmah </sect2> 26882666Sbmah </sect1> 26981339Sbmah 270109143Sroam <sect1 id="seealso"> 27182666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 27281339Sbmah 27388959Sbmah <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 27488959Sbmah included with this distribution, while others are available 27588959Sbmah on-line or in print versions.</para> 27688959Sbmah 27782666Sbmah <sect2 id="release-docs"> 27882666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 27981339Sbmah 28082666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 28182666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 28282666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 28382666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 28482666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 285171891Sbmah may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 28682666Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 28781339Sbmah 28882666Sbmah <itemizedlist> 28982666Sbmah <listitem> 29082666Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 29182666Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as 29282666Sbmah some cursory notes about obtaining a 29382666Sbmah distribution.</para> 29482666Sbmah </listitem> 29581339Sbmah 29682666Sbmah <listitem> 29782666Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 29882666Sbmah notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 29988959Sbmah &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 30088959Sbmah &release.prev;).</para> 30182666Sbmah </listitem> 30281339Sbmah 30382666Sbmah <listitem> 30482666Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 30586152Solgeni compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 30682666Sbmah been tested and is known to work.</para> 30782666Sbmah </listitem> 30881339Sbmah 30982666Sbmah <listitem> 31082666Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 31182666Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 31282666Sbmah this file, which is principally applicable to releases 31382666Sbmah (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 31482666Sbmah this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 31582666Sbmah contains the latest information on problems which have 31682666Sbmah been found and fixed since the release was 31782666Sbmah created.</para> 31882666Sbmah </listitem> 31982666Sbmah </itemizedlist> 32082666Sbmah </para> 32181339Sbmah 32293443Sbmah <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 323171891Sbmah &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 32483425Sbmah Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 32593443Sbmah installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 32683425Sbmah &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 32781339Sbmah 32882666Sbmah <note> 32982666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 33082666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 33182666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 33282666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 33382666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 33482666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 33582666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 33682666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 337134817Shrs <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 33882666Sbmah well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 33982666Sbmah location).</para> 34082666Sbmah </note> 34182666Sbmah </sect2> 34283425Sbmah 34383425Sbmah <sect2> 34488959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 34588959Sbmah 346119884Ssimon <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 34788959Sbmah with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 34888959Sbmah &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 34988959Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 35088959Sbmah pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 35188959Sbmah manual pages provide information on the different commands and 35288959Sbmah APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 35388959Sbmah 354107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 35588959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 35688959Sbmah manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 35788959Sbmah &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 35888959Sbmah &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 35988959Sbmah </sect2> 36088959Sbmah 36188959Sbmah <sect2> 36283425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 36383425Sbmah 36483425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 36583425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 36683425Sbmah are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 36783425Sbmah Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 368134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 36983425Sbmah and <ulink 370134817Shrs url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 37183425Sbmah are always available from the <ulink 372134817Shrs url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 37383425Sbmah page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 37483425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 375171891Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 376171891Sbmah note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 377171891Sbmah installing &os;.</para> 37883425Sbmah 37984484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 38084484Sbmah the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 38184484Sbmah This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 38284484Sbmah of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 38384484Sbmah operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 38484484Sbmah Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 38584484Sbmah Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 38684484Sbmah distribution set.</para> 38784484Sbmah 38884484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 38983425Sbmah found in the <ulink 390134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 391114787Sbmah of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 392114787Sbmah many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 39383425Sbmah applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 39483425Sbmah bibliography.</para> 39583425Sbmah </sect2> 39682666Sbmah </sect1> 39781327Sbmah 398109143Sroam <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 39982666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 40081327Sbmah 40182666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 40282666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 40382666Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 40482666Sbmah complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 40582666Sbmah <ulink 406134817Shrs url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 407134817Shrs to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 40882666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 40981327Sbmah 41082666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 41182666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 41282666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 41382666Sbmah </sect1> 41476082Sbmah</article> 41582666Sbmah 41682666Sbmah<!-- 41782666Sbmah Local Variables: 41882666Sbmah mode: sgml 41982666Sbmah sgml-indent-data: t 42082666Sbmah sgml-omittag: nil 42182666Sbmah sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 42282666Sbmah End: 42382666Sbmah--> 424