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176082Sbmah<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 276082Sbmah<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> 376082Sbmah%man; 476082Sbmah<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN"> 576082Sbmah%authors; 676082Sbmah<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN"> 776082Sbmah%mlists; 876082Sbmah<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 976082Sbmah%release; 1082350Sbmah<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous FreeBSD Entities//EN"> 1182350Sbmah%misc; 1276082Sbmah]> 1376082Sbmah 1476082Sbmah<article> 1582666Sbmah <articleinfo> 1682666Sbmah <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1781327Sbmah 1882666Sbmah <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 1981484Sbmah 2082666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 114787 2003-05-06 20:01:07Z bmah $</pubdate> 2181327Sbmah 2282666Sbmah <copyright> 2382666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2482666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2588820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 26108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 2782666Sbmah <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 2882666Sbmah </copyright> 2982666Sbmah </articleinfo> 3081327Sbmah 3182666Sbmah <abstract> 3282666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 3388959Sbmah &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 3488959Sbmah obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 3588959Sbmah Project, and pointers to some other sources of 3688959Sbmah information.</para> 3782666Sbmah </abstract> 3881327Sbmah 39109143Sroam <sect1 id="intro"> 4082666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 4181327Sbmah 4282666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 4382666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 4481327Sbmah 4582666Sbmah <sect2> 4682666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 4781327Sbmah 4882666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 4982666Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 50114787Sbmah hardware (i386), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles 51114787Sbmah (pc98), DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha computers (alpha), 52114787Sbmah and UltraSPARC machines (sparc64). Versions 53114787Sbmah for the IA64 (ia64), PowerPC (powerpc), and AMD 54114787Sbmah <quote>Hammer</quote> (amd64) architectures are currently under 5582666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 5682666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 5782666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 5882666Sbmah Provision.</para> 5981327Sbmah 6082666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 6182666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 6282666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 6382666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 6482666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 6582666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 6682666Sbmah all works.</para> 6781327Sbmah 6882666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 6982666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 70114787Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 7182666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 7282666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 7382666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 7482666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 7582666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 7682666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 77114787Sbmah commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 7882666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 7982666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 8082666Sbmah </sect2> 8182666Sbmah 8282666Sbmah <sect2> 8382666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 8482666Sbmah 8581339Sbmah<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 8681327Sbmah 8782666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 8882666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 8982666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 9082666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 9182666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 9282666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 9381327Sbmah 9493244Skeramida <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 9582666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 9683425Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 9782666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 9882666Sbmah 9982666Sbmah <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 10082666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 10192482Smurray (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 10282666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 10382666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 10482666Sbmah 10581339Sbmah]]> 10681339Sbmah 10781339Sbmah<![ %release.type.release; [ 10882666Sbmah 10982666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 11082666Sbmah has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 11182666Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and 11282666Sbmah dependability.</para> 11382666Sbmah 11481339Sbmah]]> 11581339Sbmah 11682666Sbmah </sect2> 11782666Sbmah </sect1> 11881339Sbmah 119109143Sroam <sect1 id="obtain"> 12082666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 12181327Sbmah 12282666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 12388959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 12482666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 12582666Sbmah installation.</para> 12681327Sbmah 12782666Sbmah <sect2> 12882666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 12981327Sbmah 13082666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 13182666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 13282666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 13382666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 13482666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 13582666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 13682666Sbmah Collection.</para> 13781327Sbmah 13882666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 13982666Sbmah project are listed in the <ulink 14082666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 14182666Sbmah FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 14282666Sbmah </sect2> 14381327Sbmah 14482666Sbmah <sect2> 14582666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 14681327Sbmah 14782666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 14882666Sbmah optional packages from <ulink 14982666Sbmah url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 15082666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 15182666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 15281327Sbmah 15382666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 15482666Sbmah <ulink 15582666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 15682666Sbmah Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 15782666Sbmah url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 15882666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 15982666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 16081327Sbmah 16182666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 16282666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 16391249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 16491249Skeramida information for mirror sites at the <ulink 16591249Skeramida URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/hubs/">Mirroring 16691249Skeramida FreeBSD</ulink> article.</para> 16781327Sbmah 16882666Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 16982666Sbmah to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 17088959Sbmah needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 17188959Sbmah contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 17282666Sbmah a &os; release.</para> 17381327Sbmah 17482666Sbmah </sect2> 17582666Sbmah </sect1> 17681327Sbmah 17782666Sbmah <sect1 id="contacting"> 17882666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 17981327Sbmah 18082666Sbmah <sect2> 18182666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 18281327Sbmah 18382666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 18482666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 18581327Sbmah 18683425Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 18782666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 18882666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 18993244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 19081327Sbmah 19188959Sbmah <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 19288959Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 19382666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 19482666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 19582666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 19681327Sbmah 19782666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 19888959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 19988959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 20088959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 20182666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 20281327Sbmah 20382666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 204114787Sbmah wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo"> 205114236Shrs FreeBSD Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 20682666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 20782666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 20882666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 209114787Sbmah obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 21082666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 21182666Sbmah lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 21281327Sbmah 21382666Sbmah <important> 21482666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 215114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 21682666Sbmah instead.</para> 21782666Sbmah </important> 21882666Sbmah </sect2> 21981327Sbmah 22082666Sbmah <sect2> 22182666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 22281327Sbmah 22382666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 22488959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 22582666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 22682666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 22781327Sbmah 22882666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 22982666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 230114787Sbmah command. 23182666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 23282666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 23382666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 23482666Sbmah possible. <ulink 23582666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 23682666Sbmah of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 23782666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 23882666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 23981327Sbmah 24082666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 24182666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 24282666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 24382666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 24482666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 24581327Sbmah 24688959Sbmah <para>For more information, <ulink 24788959Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/"><quote>Writing 24888959Sbmah FreeBSD Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 24988959Sbmah site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 25088959Sbmah effective problem reports.</para> 25182666Sbmah </sect2> 25282666Sbmah </sect1> 25381339Sbmah 254109143Sroam <sect1 id="seealso"> 25582666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 25681339Sbmah 25788959Sbmah <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 25888959Sbmah included with this distribution, while others are available 25988959Sbmah on-line or in print versions.</para> 26088959Sbmah 26182666Sbmah <sect2 id="release-docs"> 26282666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 26381339Sbmah 26482666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 26582666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 26682666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 26782666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 26882666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 26982666Sbmah may also include other formats such as PostScript 27082666Sbmah (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 27182666Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 27281339Sbmah 27382666Sbmah <itemizedlist> 27482666Sbmah <listitem> 27582666Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 27682666Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as 27782666Sbmah some cursory notes about obtaining a 27882666Sbmah distribution.</para> 27982666Sbmah </listitem> 28081339Sbmah 28182666Sbmah <listitem> 282105992Sbmah <para><filename>EARLY.TXT</filename>: A guide for early 283114787Sbmah adopters of &os; &release.current;. Highly recommended 284105992Sbmah reading for users new to &os; &release.branch; and/or the 285105992Sbmah 5.<replaceable>X</replaceable> series of releases.</para> 286105992Sbmah </listitem> 287105992Sbmah 288105992Sbmah <listitem> 28982666Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 29082666Sbmah notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 29188959Sbmah &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 29288959Sbmah &release.prev;).</para> 29382666Sbmah </listitem> 29481339Sbmah 29582666Sbmah <listitem> 29682666Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 29786152Solgeni compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 29882666Sbmah been tested and is known to work.</para> 29982666Sbmah </listitem> 30081339Sbmah 30182666Sbmah <listitem> 30282666Sbmah <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 30382666Sbmah instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 30482666Sbmah media.</para> 30582666Sbmah </listitem> 30681339Sbmah 30782666Sbmah <listitem> 30882666Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 30982666Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 31082666Sbmah this file, which is principally applicable to releases 31182666Sbmah (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 31282666Sbmah this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 31382666Sbmah contains the latest information on problems which have 31482666Sbmah been found and fixed since the release was 31582666Sbmah created.</para> 31682666Sbmah </listitem> 31782666Sbmah </itemizedlist> 31888959Sbmah 31988959Sbmah <note> 32088959Sbmah <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 32188959Sbmah <filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>, 32288959Sbmah <filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>, and 32388959Sbmah <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>) contain information that 32488959Sbmah is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For 32588959Sbmah example, the alpha release notes contain information not 32688959Sbmah applicable to the i386, and vice versa. The architecture 32788959Sbmah for which each document applies will be listed in that 32888959Sbmah document's title.</para> 32988959Sbmah </note> 33088959Sbmah 33182666Sbmah </para> 33281339Sbmah 33393443Sbmah <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 334114787Sbmah alpha, i386, ia64, pc98, and sparc64), these documents are generally available via the 33583425Sbmah Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 33693443Sbmah installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 33783425Sbmah &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 33881339Sbmah 33982666Sbmah <note> 34082666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 34182666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 34282666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 34382666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 34482666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 34582666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 34682666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 34782666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 34882666Sbmah <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 34982666Sbmah well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 35082666Sbmah location).</para> 35182666Sbmah </note> 35282666Sbmah </sect2> 35383425Sbmah 35483425Sbmah <sect2> 35588959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 35688959Sbmah 357114787Sbmah <para>As with almost all &unix;-like operating systems, &os; comes 35888959Sbmah with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 35988959Sbmah &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 36088959Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 36188959Sbmah pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 36288959Sbmah manual pages provide information on the different commands and 36388959Sbmah APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 36488959Sbmah 365107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 36688959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 36788959Sbmah manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 36888959Sbmah &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 36988959Sbmah &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 37088959Sbmah </sect2> 37188959Sbmah 37288959Sbmah <sect2> 37383425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 37483425Sbmah 37583425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 37683425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 37783425Sbmah are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 37883425Sbmah Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 37983425Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 38083425Sbmah and <ulink 38183425Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 38283425Sbmah are always available from the <ulink 38383425Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 38483425Sbmah page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 38583425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 38683425Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 38783425Sbmah 38884484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 38984484Sbmah the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 39084484Sbmah This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 39184484Sbmah of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 39284484Sbmah operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 39384484Sbmah Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 39484484Sbmah Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 39584484Sbmah distribution set.</para> 39684484Sbmah 39784484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 39883425Sbmah found in the <ulink 39983425Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 400114787Sbmah of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 401114787Sbmah many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 40283425Sbmah applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 40383425Sbmah bibliography.</para> 40483425Sbmah </sect2> 40582666Sbmah </sect1> 40681327Sbmah 407109143Sroam <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 40882666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 40981327Sbmah 41082666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 41182666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 41282666Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 41382666Sbmah complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 41482666Sbmah <ulink 41588959Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/"><quote>Contributors 41688959Sbmah to FreeBSD</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 41782666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 41881327Sbmah 41982666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 42082666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 42182666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 42282666Sbmah </sect1> 42376082Sbmah</article> 42482666Sbmah 42582666Sbmah<!-- 42682666Sbmah Local Variables: 42782666Sbmah mode: sgml 42882666Sbmah sgml-indent-data: t 42982666Sbmah sgml-omittag: nil 43082666Sbmah sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 43182666Sbmah End: 43282666Sbmah--> 433