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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 258493 2013-11-23 01:20:17Z rodrigc $</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> 33258493Srodrigc <year>2009</year> 34258493Srodrigc <year>2010</year> 35258493Srodrigc <year>2011</year> 36258493Srodrigc <year>2012</year> 37258493Srodrigc <year>2013</year> 38134817Shrs <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 3982666Sbmah </copyright> 40119884Ssimon 41257814Sgjb <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 42119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 43119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 44119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 45119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 46119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 47119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 4881327Sbmah 4982666Sbmah <abstract> 5082666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 5188959Sbmah &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 5288959Sbmah obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 5388959Sbmah Project, and pointers to some other sources of 5488959Sbmah information.</para> 5582666Sbmah </abstract> 56257814Sgjb </info> 5781327Sbmah 58257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 5982666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 6081327Sbmah 6182666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 6282666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 6381327Sbmah 6482666Sbmah <sect2> 6582666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 6681327Sbmah 6782666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 68171891Sbmah AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 69171891Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 70171891Sbmah Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 71171891Sbmah NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 72171891Sbmah and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 73179456Shrs for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 74179456Shrs &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 7582666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 7682666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 7782666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 7882666Sbmah Provision.</para> 7981327Sbmah 8082666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 8182666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 8282666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 8382666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 8482666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 8582666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 8682666Sbmah all works.</para> 8781327Sbmah 8882666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 8982666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 90114787Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 9182666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 9282666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 9382666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 9482666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 9582666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 9682666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 97114787Sbmah commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 9882666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 9982666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 10082666Sbmah </sect2> 10182666Sbmah 10282666Sbmah <sect2> 10382666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 10482666Sbmah 105250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 106134116Shrs and various other users who want to get involved with the 107134116Shrs ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 108134116Shrs tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 109134116Shrs advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 110134116Shrs work-in-progress.</para> 111134116Shrs 112250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 113134116Shrs technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 114134116Shrs ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 115134116Shrs discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 116134116Shrs 117250746Sgabor <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 118134116Shrs in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 119134116Shrs (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 120134116Shrs Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 121134116Shrs checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 122134116Shrs 123250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 12482666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 12582666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 12682666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 12782666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 12882666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 12981327Sbmah 130250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 13182666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 13283425Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 13382666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 13482666Sbmah 135250746Sgabor <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 13682666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 13792482Smurray (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 13882666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 13982666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 14082666Sbmah 141250746Sgabor <para releasetype="release">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 </sect2> 14682666Sbmah </sect1> 14781339Sbmah 148257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 14982666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 15081327Sbmah 15182666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 15288959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 15382666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 15482666Sbmah installation.</para> 15581327Sbmah 15682666Sbmah <sect2> 15782666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 15881327Sbmah 15982666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 16082666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 16182666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 16282666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 16382666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 16482666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 165171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 16681327Sbmah 16782666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 168257814Sgjb project are listed in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 169257814Sgjb &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 17082666Sbmah </sect2> 17181327Sbmah 17282666Sbmah <sect2> 17382666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 17481327Sbmah 17582666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 176257814Sgjb optional packages from <uri xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, which is the official 17782666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 17882666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 17981327Sbmah 18082666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 181257814Sgjb <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 182257814Sgjb Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 18382666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 18482666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 18581327Sbmah 18682666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 18782666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 18891249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 189257814Sgjb information for mirror sites at the <link xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 190257814Sgjb &os;</link> article.</para> 19181327Sbmah 192171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 193171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 194171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 195171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 196171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 197171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 19882666Sbmah </sect2> 19982666Sbmah </sect1> 20081327Sbmah 201257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 20282666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 20381327Sbmah 20482666Sbmah <sect2> 20582666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 20681327Sbmah 20782666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 20882666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 20981327Sbmah 21083425Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 21182666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 21282666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 21393244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 21481327Sbmah 21588959Sbmah <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 21688959Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 21782666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 21882666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 21982666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 22081327Sbmah 22182666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 22288959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 22388959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 22488959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 22582666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 22681327Sbmah 22782666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 228257814Sgjb wishing to do so. Visit the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 229257814Sgjb &os; Mailman Info Page</link>. This will give you more 23082666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 23182666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 23282666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 233257814Sgjb obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 234257814Sgjb lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 23581327Sbmah 23682666Sbmah <important> 23782666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 238114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 23982666Sbmah instead.</para> 24082666Sbmah </important> 24182666Sbmah </sect2> 24281327Sbmah 24382666Sbmah <sect2> 24482666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 24581327Sbmah 24682666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 24788959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 24882666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 24982666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 25081327Sbmah 25182666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 25282666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 253114787Sbmah command. 25482666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 25582666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 25682666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 257257814Sgjb possible. <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 258257814Sgjb of all active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; 25982666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 26082666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 26181327Sbmah 26282666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 26382666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 26482666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 26582666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 26682666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 26781327Sbmah 268257814Sgjb <para>For more information, <link xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 269257814Sgjb &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; Web 27088959Sbmah site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 27188959Sbmah effective problem reports.</para> 27282666Sbmah </sect2> 27382666Sbmah </sect1> 27481339Sbmah 275257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="seealso"> 27682666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 27781339Sbmah 27888959Sbmah <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 27988959Sbmah included with this distribution, while others are available 28088959Sbmah on-line or in print versions.</para> 28188959Sbmah 282257814Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="release-docs"> 28382666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 28481339Sbmah 28582666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 28682666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 28782666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 28882666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 28982666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 290171891Sbmah may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 29182666Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 29281339Sbmah 29382666Sbmah <itemizedlist> 29482666Sbmah <listitem> 29582666Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 29682666Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as 29782666Sbmah some cursory notes about obtaining a 29882666Sbmah distribution.</para> 29982666Sbmah </listitem> 30081339Sbmah 30182666Sbmah <listitem> 30282666Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 30382666Sbmah notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 30488959Sbmah &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 30588959Sbmah &release.prev;).</para> 30682666Sbmah </listitem> 30781339Sbmah 30882666Sbmah <listitem> 30982666Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 31086152Solgeni compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 31182666Sbmah been tested and is known to work.</para> 31282666Sbmah </listitem> 31381339Sbmah 31482666Sbmah <listitem> 31582666Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 31682666Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 31782666Sbmah this file, which is principally applicable to releases 31882666Sbmah (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 31982666Sbmah this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 32082666Sbmah contains the latest information on problems which have 32182666Sbmah been found and fixed since the release was 32282666Sbmah created.</para> 32382666Sbmah </listitem> 32482666Sbmah </itemizedlist> 32582666Sbmah </para> 32681339Sbmah 32793443Sbmah <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 328171891Sbmah &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 32983425Sbmah Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 33093443Sbmah installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 33183425Sbmah &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 33281339Sbmah 33382666Sbmah <note> 33482666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 33582666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 33682666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 33782666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 33882666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 33982666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 34082666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 34182666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 342257814Sgjb <uri xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> (as 34382666Sbmah well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 34482666Sbmah location).</para> 34582666Sbmah </note> 34682666Sbmah </sect2> 34783425Sbmah 34883425Sbmah <sect2> 34988959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 35088959Sbmah 351119884Ssimon <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 35288959Sbmah with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 353257814Sgjb &man.man.1; command or through the <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 354257814Sgjb pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 35588959Sbmah manual pages provide information on the different commands and 35688959Sbmah APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 35788959Sbmah 358107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 35988959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 36088959Sbmah manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 36188959Sbmah &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 36288959Sbmah &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 36388959Sbmah </sect2> 36488959Sbmah 36588959Sbmah <sect2> 36683425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 36783425Sbmah 36883425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 36983425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 37083425Sbmah are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 371257814Sgjb Questions document). On-line versions of the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> 372257814Sgjb and <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> 373257814Sgjb are always available from the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 374257814Sgjb page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 37583425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 376171891Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 377171891Sbmah note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 378171891Sbmah installing &os;.</para> 37983425Sbmah 38084484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 38184484Sbmah the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 38284484Sbmah This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 38384484Sbmah of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 38484484Sbmah operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 38584484Sbmah Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 38684484Sbmah Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 38784484Sbmah distribution set.</para> 38884484Sbmah 38984484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 390257814Sgjb found in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 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 398257814Sgjb <sect1 xml: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 405257814Sgjb <link xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 406257814Sgjb to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 40782666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 40881327Sbmah 40982666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 41082666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 41182666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 41282666Sbmah </sect1> 41376082Sbmah</article> 414