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1<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN"> 3%articles.ent; 4 5<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 6%release; 7]> 8 9<article> 10 <articleinfo> 11 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 12 13 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 14 15 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 134817 2004-09-05 14:53:34Z hrs $</pubdate> 16 17 <copyright> 18 <year>2000</year> 19 <year>2001</year> 20 <year>2002</year> 21 <year>2003</year> 22 <year>2004</year> 23 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 24 </copyright> 25 26 <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 27 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 28 &tm-attrib.intel; 29 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 30 &tm-attrib.sparc; 31 &tm-attrib.general; 32 </legalnotice> 33 </articleinfo> 34 35 <abstract> 36 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 37 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 38 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 39 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 40 information.</para> 41 </abstract> 42 43 <sect1 id="intro"> 44 <title>Introduction</title> 45 46 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 47 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 48 49 <sect2> 50 <title>About &os;</title> 51 52 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 53 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 54 hardware (&i386;), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles 55 (pc98), DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha computers (alpha), 56 and &ultrasparc; machines (&sparc64;). Versions 57 for the IA64 (ia64), &powerpc; (&powerpc;), and AMD 58 <quote>Hammer</quote> (amd64) architectures are currently under 59 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 60 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 61 from software development to games to Internet Service 62 Provision.</para> 63 64 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 65 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 66 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 67 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 68 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 69 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 70 all works.</para> 71 72 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 73 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 74 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 75 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 76 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 77 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 78 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 79 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 80 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 81 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 82 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 83 installed from the installation program.</para> 84 </sect2> 85 86 <sect2> 87 <title>Target Audience</title> 88 89<![ %release.type.current; [ 90 91 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 92 and various other users who want to get involved with the 93 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 94 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 95 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 96 work-in-progress.</para> 97 98 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 99 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 100 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 101 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 102 103 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 104 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 105 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 106 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 107 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 108 109]]> 110 111<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 112 113 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 114 and various other users who want to get involved with the 115 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 116 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 117 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 118 work-in-progress.</para> 119 120 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 121 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 122 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 123 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 124 125 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 126 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 127 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 128 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 129 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 130 131]]> 132 133<![ %release.type.release; [ 134 135 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 136 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 137 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 138 dependability.</para> 139 140]]> 141 142 </sect2> 143 </sect1> 144 145 <sect1 id="obtain"> 146 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 147 148 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 149 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 150 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 151 installation.</para> 152 153 <sect2> 154 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 155 156 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 157 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 158 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 159 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 160 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 161 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 162 Collection.</para> 163 164 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 165 project are listed in the <ulink 166 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 167 &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 168 </sect2> 169 170 <sect2> 171 <title>FTP</title> 172 173 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 174 optional packages from <ulink 175 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 176 &os; release site, or any of its 177 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 178 179 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 180 <ulink 181 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 182 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 183 url="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 184 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 185 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 186 187 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 188 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 189 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 190 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 191 URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 192 &os;</ulink> article.</para> 193 194 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 195 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 196 needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 197 contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 198 a &os; release.</para> 199 200 </sect2> 201 </sect1> 202 203 <sect1 id="contacting"> 204 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 205 206 <sect2> 207 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 208 209 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 210 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 211 212 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 213 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 214 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 215 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 216 217 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 218 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 219 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 220 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 221 the &a.hackers;.</para> 222 223 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 224 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 225 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 226 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 227 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 228 229 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 230 wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 231 &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 232 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 233 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 234 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 235 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 236 url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 237 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 238 239 <important> 240 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 241 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 242 instead.</para> 243 </important> 244 </sect2> 245 246 <sect2> 247 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 248 249 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 250 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 251 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 252 course even more welcome.</para> 253 254 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 255 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 256 command. 257 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 258 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 259 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 260 possible. <ulink 261 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 262 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 263 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 264 have encountered.</para> 265 266 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 267 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 268 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 269 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 270 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 271 272 <para>For more information, <ulink 273 url="&url.base;/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/"><quote>Writing 274 &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 275 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 276 effective problem reports.</para> 277 </sect2> 278 </sect1> 279 280 <sect1 id="seealso"> 281 <title>Further Reading</title> 282 283 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 284 included with this distribution, while others are available 285 on-line or in print versions.</para> 286 287 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 288 <title>Release Documentation</title> 289 290 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 291 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 292 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 293 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 294 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 295 may also include other formats such as PostScript 296 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 297 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 298 299 <itemizedlist> 300 <listitem> 301 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 302 gives some general information about &os; as well as 303 some cursory notes about obtaining a 304 distribution.</para> 305 </listitem> 306 307 <listitem> 308 <para><filename>EARLY.TXT</filename>: A guide for early 309 adopters of &os; &release.current;. Highly recommended 310 reading for users new to &os; &release.branch; and/or the 311 6.<replaceable>X</replaceable> series of releases.</para> 312 </listitem> 313 314 <listitem> 315 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 316 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 317 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 318 &release.prev;).</para> 319 </listitem> 320 321 <listitem> 322 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 323 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 324 been tested and is known to work.</para> 325 </listitem> 326 327 <listitem> 328 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 329 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 330 media.</para> 331 </listitem> 332 333 <listitem> 334 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 335 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 336 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 337 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 338 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 339 contains the latest information on problems which have 340 been found and fixed since the release was 341 created.</para> 342 </listitem> 343 </itemizedlist> 344 345 <note> 346 <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 347 <filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>, 348 <filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>, and 349 <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>) contain information that 350 is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For 351 example, the alpha release notes contain information not 352 applicable to the &i386;, and vice versa. The architecture 353 for which each document applies will be listed in that 354 document's title.</para> 355 </note> 356 357 </para> 358 359 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 360 alpha, &i386;, ia64, pc98, and &sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 361 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 362 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 363 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 364 365 <note> 366 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 367 given release before installing it, to learn about any 368 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 369 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 370 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 371 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 372 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 373 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 374 <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 375 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 376 location).</para> 377 </note> 378 </sect2> 379 380 <sect2> 381 <title>Manual Pages</title> 382 383 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 384 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 385 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 386 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 387 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 388 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 389 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 390 391 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 392 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 393 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 394 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 395 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 396 </sect2> 397 398 <sect2> 399 <title>Books and Articles</title> 400 401 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 402 maintained by the &os; Project, 403 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 404 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 405 url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 406 and <ulink 407 url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 408 are always available from the <ulink 409 url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 410 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 411 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 412 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 413 414 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 415 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 416 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 417 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 418 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 419 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 420 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 421 distribution set.</para> 422 423 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 424 found in the <ulink 425 url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 426 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 427 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 428 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 429 bibliography.</para> 430 </sect2> 431 </sect1> 432 433 <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 434 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 435 436 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 437 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 438 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 439 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 440 <ulink 441 url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 442 to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 443 mirrors.</para> 444 445 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 446 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 447 simply would not have been possible.</para> 448 </sect1> 449</article> 450 451<!-- 452 Local Variables: 453 mode: sgml 454 sgml-indent-data: t 455 sgml-omittag: nil 456 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 457 End: 458--> 459