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1250746Sgabor<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> 2257814Sgjb<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V5.0-Based Extension//EN" 3257814Sgjb "../../../share/xml/freebsd50.dtd" [ 4250746Sgabor<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN" "release.ent"> 5250746Sgabor %release; 676082Sbmah]> 7257814Sgjb<!-- 8257814Sgjb Local Variables: 9257814Sgjb mode: sgml 10257814Sgjb sgml-indent-data: t 11257814Sgjb sgml-omittag: nil 12257814Sgjb sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 13257814Sgjb End: 14257814Sgjb--> 15257814Sgjb<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"> 16257814Sgjb <info><title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 17257814Sgjb 1876082Sbmah 19257814Sgjb <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author> 2081327Sbmah 2182666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: stable/10/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 257814 2013-11-07 21:08:12Z gjb $</pubdate> 2281327Sbmah 2382666Sbmah <copyright> 2482666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2582666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2688820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 27108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 28130964Sden <year>2004</year> 29145265Shrs <year>2005</year> 30165592Sbmah <year>2006</year> 31171891Sbmah <year>2007</year> 32179456Shrs <year>2008</year> 33134817Shrs <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 3482666Sbmah </copyright> 35119884Ssimon 36257814Sgjb <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 37119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 38119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 39119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 40119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 41119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 42119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 4381327Sbmah 4482666Sbmah <abstract> 4582666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 4688959Sbmah &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 4788959Sbmah obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 4888959Sbmah Project, and pointers to some other sources of 4988959Sbmah information.</para> 5082666Sbmah </abstract> 51257814Sgjb </info> 5281327Sbmah 53257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 5482666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 5581327Sbmah 5682666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 5782666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 5881327Sbmah 5982666Sbmah <sect2> 6082666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 6181327Sbmah 6282666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 63171891Sbmah AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 64171891Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 65171891Sbmah Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 66171891Sbmah NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 67171891Sbmah and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 68179456Shrs for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 69179456Shrs &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 7082666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 7182666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 7282666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 7382666Sbmah Provision.</para> 7481327Sbmah 7582666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 7682666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 7782666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 7882666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 7982666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 8082666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 8182666Sbmah all works.</para> 8281327Sbmah 8382666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 8482666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 85114787Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 8682666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 8782666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 8882666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 8982666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 9082666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 9182666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 92114787Sbmah commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 9382666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 9482666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 9582666Sbmah </sect2> 9682666Sbmah 9782666Sbmah <sect2> 9882666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 9982666Sbmah 100250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 101134116Shrs and various other users who want to get involved with the 102134116Shrs ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 103134116Shrs tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 104134116Shrs advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 105134116Shrs work-in-progress.</para> 106134116Shrs 107250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 108134116Shrs technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 109134116Shrs ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 110134116Shrs discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 111134116Shrs 112250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 113134116Shrs in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 114134116Shrs (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 115134116Shrs Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 116134116Shrs checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 117134116Shrs 118250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 11982666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 12082666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 12182666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 12282666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 12382666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 12481327Sbmah 125250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 12682666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 12783425Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 12882666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 12982666Sbmah 130250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 13182666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 13292482Smurray (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 13382666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 13482666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 13582666Sbmah 136250746Sgabor <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 13782666Sbmah has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 13882666Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and 13982666Sbmah dependability.</para> 14082666Sbmah </sect2> 14182666Sbmah </sect1> 14281339Sbmah 143257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 14482666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 14581327Sbmah 14682666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 14788959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 14882666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 14982666Sbmah installation.</para> 15081327Sbmah 15182666Sbmah <sect2> 15282666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 15381327Sbmah 15482666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 15582666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 15682666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 15782666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 15882666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 15982666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 160171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 16181327Sbmah 16282666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 163257814Sgjb project are listed in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 164257814Sgjb &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 16582666Sbmah </sect2> 16681327Sbmah 16782666Sbmah <sect2> 16882666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 16981327Sbmah 17082666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 171257814Sgjb optional packages from <uri xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, which is the official 17282666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 17382666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 17481327Sbmah 17582666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 176257814Sgjb <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 177257814Sgjb Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 17882666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 17982666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 18081327Sbmah 18182666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 18282666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 18391249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 184257814Sgjb information for mirror sites at the <link xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 185257814Sgjb &os;</link> article.</para> 18681327Sbmah 187171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 188171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 189171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 190171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 191171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 192171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 19382666Sbmah </sect2> 19482666Sbmah </sect1> 19581327Sbmah 196257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 19782666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 19881327Sbmah 19982666Sbmah <sect2> 20082666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 20181327Sbmah 20282666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 20382666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 20481327Sbmah 20583425Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 20682666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 20782666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 20893244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 20981327Sbmah 21088959Sbmah <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 21188959Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 21282666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 21382666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 21482666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 21581327Sbmah 21682666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 21788959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 21888959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 21988959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 22082666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 22181327Sbmah 22282666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 223257814Sgjb wishing to do so. Visit the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 224257814Sgjb &os; Mailman Info Page</link>. This will give you more 22582666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 22682666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 22782666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 228257814Sgjb obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 229257814Sgjb lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 23081327Sbmah 23182666Sbmah <important> 23282666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 233114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 23482666Sbmah instead.</para> 23582666Sbmah </important> 23682666Sbmah </sect2> 23781327Sbmah 23882666Sbmah <sect2> 23982666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 24081327Sbmah 24182666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 24288959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 24382666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 24482666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 24581327Sbmah 24682666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 24782666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 248114787Sbmah command. 24982666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 25082666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 25182666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 252257814Sgjb possible. <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 253257814Sgjb of all active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; 25482666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 25582666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 25681327Sbmah 25782666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 25882666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 25982666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 26082666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 26182666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 26281327Sbmah 263257814Sgjb <para>For more information, <link xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 264257814Sgjb &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, 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 270257814Sgjb <sect1 xml: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 277257814Sgjb <sect2 xml: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 337257814Sgjb <uri xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> (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 348257814Sgjb &man.man.1; command or through the <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 349257814Sgjb pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 35088959Sbmah manual pages provide information on the different commands and 35188959Sbmah APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 35288959Sbmah 353107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 35488959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 35588959Sbmah manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 35688959Sbmah &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 35788959Sbmah &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 35888959Sbmah </sect2> 35988959Sbmah 36088959Sbmah <sect2> 36183425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 36283425Sbmah 36383425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 36483425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 36583425Sbmah are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 366257814Sgjb Questions document). On-line versions of the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> 367257814Sgjb and <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> 368257814Sgjb are always available from the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 369257814Sgjb page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 37083425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 371171891Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 372171891Sbmah note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 373171891Sbmah installing &os;.</para> 37483425Sbmah 37584484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 37684484Sbmah the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 37784484Sbmah This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 37884484Sbmah of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 37984484Sbmah operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 38084484Sbmah Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 38184484Sbmah Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 38284484Sbmah distribution set.</para> 38384484Sbmah 38484484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 385257814Sgjb found in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 386114787Sbmah of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 387114787Sbmah many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 38883425Sbmah applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 38983425Sbmah bibliography.</para> 39083425Sbmah </sect2> 39182666Sbmah </sect1> 39281327Sbmah 393257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements"> 39482666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 39581327Sbmah 39682666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 39782666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 39882666Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 39982666Sbmah complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 400257814Sgjb <link xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 401257814Sgjb to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 40282666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 40381327Sbmah 40482666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 40582666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 40682666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 40782666Sbmah </sect1> 40876082Sbmah</article> 409