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1240508Sgabor<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" standalone="no"?> 2240508Sgabor<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V4.2-Based Extension//EN" [ 3240508Sgabor<!ENTITY % entities PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Entity Set//EN"> 4240508Sgabor%entities; 5133328Shrs 676082Sbmah<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 776082Sbmah%release; 876082Sbmah]> 976082Sbmah 1076082Sbmah<article> 1182666Sbmah <articleinfo> 1282666Sbmah <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1381327Sbmah 1482666Sbmah <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 1581484Sbmah 1682666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 240508 2012-09-14 18:33:12Z gabor $</pubdate> 1781327Sbmah 1882666Sbmah <copyright> 1982666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2082666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2188820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 22108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 23130964Sden <year>2004</year> 24145265Shrs <year>2005</year> 25165592Sbmah <year>2006</year> 26171891Sbmah <year>2007</year> 27179456Shrs <year>2008</year> 28134817Shrs <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 2982666Sbmah </copyright> 30119884Ssimon 31119884Ssimon <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 32119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 33119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 34119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 35119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 36119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 37119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 3882666Sbmah </articleinfo> 3981327Sbmah 4082666Sbmah <abstract> 4182666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 4288959Sbmah &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 4388959Sbmah obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 4488959Sbmah Project, and pointers to some other sources of 4588959Sbmah information.</para> 4682666Sbmah </abstract> 4781327Sbmah 48109143Sroam <sect1 id="intro"> 4982666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 5081327Sbmah 5182666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 5282666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 5381327Sbmah 5482666Sbmah <sect2> 5582666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 5681327Sbmah 5782666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 58171891Sbmah AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 59171891Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 60171891Sbmah Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 61171891Sbmah NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 62171891Sbmah and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 63179456Shrs for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 64179456Shrs &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 6582666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 6682666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 6782666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 6882666Sbmah Provision.</para> 6981327Sbmah 7082666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 7182666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 7282666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 7382666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 7482666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 7582666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 7682666Sbmah all works.</para> 7781327Sbmah 7882666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 7982666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 80114787Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 8182666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 8282666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 8382666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 8482666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 8582666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 8682666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 87114787Sbmah commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 8882666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 8982666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 9082666Sbmah </sect2> 9182666Sbmah 9282666Sbmah <sect2> 9382666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 9482666Sbmah 95134116Shrs<![ %release.type.current; [ 96134116Shrs 97134116Shrs <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 98134116Shrs and various other users who want to get involved with the 99134116Shrs ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 100134116Shrs tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 101134116Shrs advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 102134116Shrs work-in-progress.</para> 103134116Shrs 104134116Shrs <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 105134116Shrs technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 106134116Shrs ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 107134116Shrs discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 108134116Shrs 109134116Shrs <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 110134116Shrs in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 111134116Shrs (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 112134116Shrs Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 113134116Shrs checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 114134116Shrs 115134116Shrs]]> 116134116Shrs 11781339Sbmah<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 11881327Sbmah 11982666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 12082666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 12182666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 12282666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 12382666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 12482666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 12581327Sbmah 12693244Skeramida <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 12782666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 12883425Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 12982666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 13082666Sbmah 13182666Sbmah <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 13282666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 13392482Smurray (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 13482666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 13582666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 13682666Sbmah 13781339Sbmah]]> 13881339Sbmah 13981339Sbmah<![ %release.type.release; [ 14082666Sbmah 14182666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 14282666Sbmah has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 14382666Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and 14482666Sbmah dependability.</para> 14582666Sbmah 14681339Sbmah]]> 14781339Sbmah 14882666Sbmah </sect2> 14982666Sbmah </sect1> 15081339Sbmah 151109143Sroam <sect1 id="obtain"> 15282666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 15381327Sbmah 15482666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 15588959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 15682666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 15782666Sbmah installation.</para> 15881327Sbmah 15982666Sbmah <sect2> 16082666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 16181327Sbmah 16282666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 16382666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 16482666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 16582666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 16682666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 16782666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 168171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 16981327Sbmah 17082666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 17182666Sbmah project are listed in the <ulink 172134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 173134817Shrs &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 17482666Sbmah </sect2> 17581327Sbmah 17682666Sbmah <sect2> 17782666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 17881327Sbmah 17982666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 18082666Sbmah optional packages from <ulink 18182666Sbmah url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 18282666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 18382666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 18481327Sbmah 18582666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 18682666Sbmah <ulink 187134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 188223457Shrs Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook. 18982666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 19082666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 19181327Sbmah 19282666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 19382666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 19491249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 19591249Skeramida information for mirror sites at the <ulink 196240508Sgabor url="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 197134817Shrs &os;</ulink> article.</para> 19881327Sbmah 199171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 200171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 201171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 202171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 203171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 204171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 20582666Sbmah </sect2> 20682666Sbmah </sect1> 20781327Sbmah 20882666Sbmah <sect1 id="contacting"> 20982666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 21081327Sbmah 21182666Sbmah <sect2> 21282666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 21381327Sbmah 21482666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 21582666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 21681327Sbmah 21783425Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 21882666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 21982666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 22093244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 22181327Sbmah 22288959Sbmah <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 22388959Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 22482666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 22582666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 22682666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 22781327Sbmah 22882666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 22988959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 23088959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 23188959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 23282666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 23381327Sbmah 23482666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 235134817Shrs wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 236134817Shrs &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 23782666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 23882666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 23982666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 240114787Sbmah obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 241134817Shrs url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 24282666Sbmah lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 24381327Sbmah 24482666Sbmah <important> 24582666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 246114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 24782666Sbmah instead.</para> 24882666Sbmah </important> 24982666Sbmah </sect2> 25081327Sbmah 25182666Sbmah <sect2> 25282666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 25381327Sbmah 25482666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 25588959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 25682666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 25782666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 25881327Sbmah 25982666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 26082666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 261114787Sbmah command. 26282666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 26382666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 26482666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 26582666Sbmah possible. <ulink 26682666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 26782666Sbmah of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 26882666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 26982666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 27081327Sbmah 27182666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 27282666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 27382666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 27482666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 27582666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 27681327Sbmah 27788959Sbmah <para>For more information, <ulink 278134840Sden url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 279134817Shrs &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 28088959Sbmah site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 28188959Sbmah effective problem reports.</para> 28282666Sbmah </sect2> 28382666Sbmah </sect1> 28481339Sbmah 285109143Sroam <sect1 id="seealso"> 28682666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 28781339Sbmah 28888959Sbmah <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 28988959Sbmah included with this distribution, while others are available 29088959Sbmah on-line or in print versions.</para> 29188959Sbmah 29282666Sbmah <sect2 id="release-docs"> 29382666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 29481339Sbmah 29582666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 29682666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 29782666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 29882666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 29982666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 300171891Sbmah may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 30182666Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 30281339Sbmah 30382666Sbmah <itemizedlist> 30482666Sbmah <listitem> 30582666Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 30682666Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as 30782666Sbmah some cursory notes about obtaining a 30882666Sbmah distribution.</para> 30982666Sbmah </listitem> 31081339Sbmah 31182666Sbmah <listitem> 31282666Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 31382666Sbmah notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 31488959Sbmah &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 31588959Sbmah &release.prev;).</para> 31682666Sbmah </listitem> 31781339Sbmah 31882666Sbmah <listitem> 31982666Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 32086152Solgeni compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 32182666Sbmah been tested and is known to work.</para> 32282666Sbmah </listitem> 32381339Sbmah 32482666Sbmah <listitem> 32582666Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 32682666Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 32782666Sbmah this file, which is principally applicable to releases 32882666Sbmah (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 32982666Sbmah this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 33082666Sbmah contains the latest information on problems which have 33182666Sbmah been found and fixed since the release was 33282666Sbmah created.</para> 33382666Sbmah </listitem> 33482666Sbmah </itemizedlist> 33582666Sbmah </para> 33681339Sbmah 33793443Sbmah <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 338171891Sbmah &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 33983425Sbmah Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 34093443Sbmah installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 34183425Sbmah &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 34281339Sbmah 34382666Sbmah <note> 34482666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 34582666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 34682666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 34782666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 34882666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 34982666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 35082666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 35182666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 352134817Shrs <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 35382666Sbmah well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 35482666Sbmah location).</para> 35582666Sbmah </note> 35682666Sbmah </sect2> 35783425Sbmah 35883425Sbmah <sect2> 35988959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 36088959Sbmah 361119884Ssimon <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 36288959Sbmah with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 36388959Sbmah &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 36488959Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 36588959Sbmah pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 36688959Sbmah manual pages provide information on the different commands and 36788959Sbmah APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 36888959Sbmah 369107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 37088959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 37188959Sbmah manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 37288959Sbmah &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 37388959Sbmah &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 37488959Sbmah </sect2> 37588959Sbmah 37688959Sbmah <sect2> 37783425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 37883425Sbmah 37983425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 38083425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 38183425Sbmah are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 38283425Sbmah Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 383134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 38483425Sbmah and <ulink 385134817Shrs url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 38683425Sbmah are always available from the <ulink 387134817Shrs url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 38883425Sbmah page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 38983425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 390171891Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 391171891Sbmah note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 392171891Sbmah installing &os;.</para> 39383425Sbmah 39484484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 39584484Sbmah the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 39684484Sbmah This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 39784484Sbmah of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 39884484Sbmah operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 39984484Sbmah Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 40084484Sbmah Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 40184484Sbmah distribution set.</para> 40284484Sbmah 40384484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 40483425Sbmah found in the <ulink 405134817Shrs url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 406114787Sbmah of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 407114787Sbmah many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 40883425Sbmah applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 40983425Sbmah bibliography.</para> 41083425Sbmah </sect2> 41182666Sbmah </sect1> 41281327Sbmah 413109143Sroam <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 41482666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 41581327Sbmah 41682666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 41782666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 41882666Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 41982666Sbmah complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 42082666Sbmah <ulink 421134817Shrs url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 422134817Shrs to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 42382666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 42481327Sbmah 42582666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 42682666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 42782666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 42882666Sbmah </sect1> 42976082Sbmah</article> 43082666Sbmah 43182666Sbmah<!-- 43282666Sbmah Local Variables: 43382666Sbmah mode: sgml 43482666Sbmah sgml-indent-data: t 43582666Sbmah sgml-omittag: nil 43682666Sbmah sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 43782666Sbmah End: 43882666Sbmah--> 439