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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" 3270685Sgjb "../../../share/xml/freebsd50.dtd" [ 4250746Sgabor<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN" "release.ent"> 5250746Sgabor %release; 676082Sbmah]> 7270685Sgjb<!-- 8257814Sgjb Local Variables: 9257814Sgjb mode: sgml 10257814Sgjb sgml-indent-data: t 11257814Sgjb sgml-omittag: nil 12257814Sgjb sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 13257814Sgjb End: 14257814Sgjb--> 15270685Sgjb<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" 16270685Sgjb xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"> 17270685Sgjb <info> 18270685Sgjb <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1976082Sbmah 20257814Sgjb <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author> 2181327Sbmah 2282666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: stable/10/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 270685 2014-08-26 23:58:54Z gjb $</pubdate> 2381327Sbmah 2482666Sbmah <copyright> 2582666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2682666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2788820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 28108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 29130964Sden <year>2004</year> 30145265Shrs <year>2005</year> 31165592Sbmah <year>2006</year> 32171891Sbmah <year>2007</year> 33179456Shrs <year>2008</year> 34258493Srodrigc <year>2009</year> 35258493Srodrigc <year>2010</year> 36258493Srodrigc <year>2011</year> 37258493Srodrigc <year>2012</year> 38258493Srodrigc <year>2013</year> 39270684Sgjb <year>2014</year> 40270685Sgjb <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation 41270685Sgjb Project</holder> 4282666Sbmah </copyright> 43119884Ssimon 44257814Sgjb <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 45119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 46119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 47119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 48119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 49119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 50119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 5181327Sbmah 52270685Sgjb <abstract> 53270685Sgjb <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 54270685Sgjb &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 55270685Sgjb obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 56270685Sgjb Project, and pointers to some other sources of 57270685Sgjb information.</para> 58270685Sgjb </abstract> 59257814Sgjb </info> 6081327Sbmah 61257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 6282666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 6381327Sbmah 64270685Sgjb <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; 65270685Sgjb &release.current;, the latest point along the &release.branch; 66270685Sgjb branch.</para> 6781327Sbmah 6882666Sbmah <sect2> 6982666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 7081327Sbmah 7182666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 72270685Sgjb AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), Intel, 73270685Sgjb AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware 74270685Sgjb (&arch.i386;), Intel Itanium Processor based computers 75270685Sgjb (&arch.ia64;), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles 76270685Sgjb (&arch.pc98;), and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). 77270685Sgjb Versions for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 78179456Shrs &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 7982666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 8082666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 8182666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 8282666Sbmah Provision.</para> 8381327Sbmah 8482666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 8582666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 8682666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 8782666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 8882666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 8982666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 9082666Sbmah all works.</para> 9181327Sbmah 9282666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 9382666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 94270685Sgjb easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional 95270685Sgjb &unix; utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists 96270685Sgjb of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install 97270685Sgjb a piece of software, with a single command. Over 98270685Sgjb &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming languages to 99270685Sgjb graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive 100270685Sgjb operating environment that extends far beyond what's provided 101270685Sgjb by many commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also 102270685Sgjb available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can 103270685Sgjb be quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 10482666Sbmah </sect2> 10582666Sbmah 10682666Sbmah <sect2> 10782666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 10882666Sbmah 109270685Sgjb <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed 110270685Sgjb primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 111270685Sgjb to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 112270685Sgjb the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 113270685Sgjb &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 114270685Sgjb much a work-in-progress.</para> 115134116Shrs 116270685Sgjb <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using 117270685Sgjb this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 118270685Sgjb understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 119270685Sgjb &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 120134116Shrs 121270685Sgjb <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing 122270685Sgjb business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 123270685Sgjb technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 124270685Sgjb are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 125270685Sgjb testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 126270685Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 127134116Shrs 128270685Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed 129270685Sgjb primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 130270685Sgjb to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 131270685Sgjb the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 132270685Sgjb &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 133270685Sgjb much a work-in-progress.</para> 13481327Sbmah 135270685Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using 136270685Sgjb this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 137270685Sgjb understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 138270685Sgjb &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 13982666Sbmah 140270685Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing 141270685Sgjb business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 142270685Sgjb technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 143270685Sgjb are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 144270685Sgjb testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 145270685Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 14682666Sbmah 147270685Sgjb <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is 148270685Sgjb suitable for all users. It has undergone a period of testing 149270685Sgjb and quality assurance checking to ensure the highest 150270685Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 15182666Sbmah </sect2> 15282666Sbmah </sect1> 15381339Sbmah 154257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 15582666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 15681327Sbmah 15782666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 15888959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 15982666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 16082666Sbmah installation.</para> 16181327Sbmah 16282666Sbmah <sect2> 16382666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 16481327Sbmah 16582666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 16682666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 16782666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 16882666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 16982666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 17082666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 171171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 17281327Sbmah 17382666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 174270685Sgjb project are listed in the <link 175270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 176270685Sgjb &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 17782666Sbmah </sect2> 17881327Sbmah 17982666Sbmah <sect2> 18082666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 18181327Sbmah 18282666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 183270685Sgjb optional packages from <uri 184270685Sgjb xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, 185270685Sgjb which is the official &os; release site, or any of its 18682666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 18781327Sbmah 18882666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 189257814Sgjb <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 190257814Sgjb Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 19182666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 19282666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 19381327Sbmah 19482666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 19582666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 19691249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 197270685Sgjb information for mirror sites at the <link 198270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring &os;</link> 199270685Sgjb article.</para> 20081327Sbmah 201171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 202171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 203171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 204171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 205171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 206171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 20782666Sbmah </sect2> 20882666Sbmah </sect1> 20981327Sbmah 210257814Sgjb <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 21182666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 21281327Sbmah 21382666Sbmah <sect2> 21482666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 21581327Sbmah 21682666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 21782666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 21881327Sbmah 219270685Sgjb <para>If tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 220259789Sgjb <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.stable;, in order to 22182666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 22293244Skeramida affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 22381327Sbmah 224270685Sgjb <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; Project is 225270685Sgjb always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there 226270685Sgjb are already far more desired enhancements than there is time 227270685Sgjb to implement them. To contact the developers on technical 228270685Sgjb matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to the 229270685Sgjb &a.hackers;.</para> 23081327Sbmah 23182666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 23288959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 23388959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 23488959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 23582666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 23681327Sbmah 23782666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 238270685Sgjb wishing to do so. Visit the <link 239270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> &os; Mailman Info 240270685Sgjb Page</link>. This will give you more information on joining 241270685Sgjb the various lists, accessing archives, etc. There are 242270685Sgjb a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups 243270685Sgjb not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 244270685Sgjb from the Mailman pages or the <link 245270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 246270685Sgjb lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 24781327Sbmah 24882666Sbmah <important> 24982666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 250114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 25182666Sbmah instead.</para> 25282666Sbmah </important> 25382666Sbmah </sect2> 25481327Sbmah 25582666Sbmah <sect2> 25682666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 25781327Sbmah 25882666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 25988959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 26082666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 26182666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 26281327Sbmah 26382666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 264270685Sgjb with Internet connectivity is to use the 265270685Sgjb <application>Bugzilla</application> bug tracker. 26682666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 26782666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 26882666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 269270685Sgjb possible. <link 270270685Sgjb xlink:href="https://bugs.FreeBSD.org/search/">A list of all 271270685Sgjb active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; this 272270685Sgjb list is useful to see what potential problems other users have 273270685Sgjb encountered.</para> 27481327Sbmah 275270683Sgjb <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; is deprecated.</para> 27681327Sbmah 277270685Sgjb <para>For more information, <link 278270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 279270685Sgjb &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; 280270685Sgjb Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and 281270685Sgjb submitting effective problem reports.</para> 28282666Sbmah </sect2> 28382666Sbmah </sect1> 28481339Sbmah 285257814Sgjb <sect1 xml: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 292257814Sgjb <sect2 xml: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 300270685Sgjb may also include other formats such as Portable Document 301270685Sgjb Format (<filename>.PDF</filename>).</para> 30281339Sbmah 303270685Sgjb <itemizedlist> 304270685Sgjb <listitem> 305270685Sgjb <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 306270685Sgjb gives some general information about &os; as well as 307270685Sgjb some cursory notes about obtaining a 308270685Sgjb distribution.</para> 309270685Sgjb </listitem> 31081339Sbmah 311270685Sgjb <listitem> 312270685Sgjb <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 313270685Sgjb notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 314270685Sgjb &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 315270685Sgjb &release.prev;).</para> 316270685Sgjb </listitem> 31781339Sbmah 318270685Sgjb <listitem> 319270685Sgjb <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 320270685Sgjb compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 321270685Sgjb been tested and is known to work.</para> 322270685Sgjb </listitem> 32381339Sbmah 324270685Sgjb <listitem> 325270685Sgjb <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 326270685Sgjb Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 327270685Sgjb this file, which is principally applicable to releases 328270685Sgjb (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 329270685Sgjb this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 330270685Sgjb contains the latest information on problems which have 331270685Sgjb been found and fixed since the release was 332270685Sgjb created.</para> 333270685Sgjb </listitem> 334270685Sgjb </itemizedlist> 33581339Sbmah 336258593Srodrigc <para>On platforms that support &man.bsdinstall.8; (currently 337270685Sgjb &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and 338270685Sgjb &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via 339270685Sgjb the Documentation menu during installation. Once the system 340270685Sgjb is installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 341258593Srodrigc &man.bsdinstall.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 352270685Sgjb <uri 353270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> 354270685Sgjb (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 35582666Sbmah location).</para> 35682666Sbmah </note> 35782666Sbmah </sect2> 35883425Sbmah 35983425Sbmah <sect2> 36088959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 36188959Sbmah 362270685Sgjb <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; 363270685Sgjb comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 364270685Sgjb &man.man.1; command or through the <link 365270685Sgjb xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext 366270685Sgjb manual pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In 367270685Sgjb general, the manual pages provide information on the different 368270685Sgjb commands and APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 36988959Sbmah 370107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 37188959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 372270685Sgjb manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance 373270685Sgjb tuning), &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), 374270685Sgjb and &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 37588959Sbmah </sect2> 37688959Sbmah 37788959Sbmah <sect2> 37883425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 37983425Sbmah 38083425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 381270685Sgjb maintained by the &os; Project, are the &os; Handbook and &os; 382270685Sgjb FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions 383270685Sgjb of the <link 384270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> and <link 385270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> are always 386270685Sgjb available from the <link 387270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 388270685Sgjb page</link> 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 395270685Sgjb the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 396270685Sgjb This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 397270685Sgjb of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 398270685Sgjb operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 399270685Sgjb Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 400270685Sgjb Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 401270685Sgjb distribution set.</para> 40284484Sbmah 40384484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 404270685Sgjb found in the <link 405270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 406270685Sgjb of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; 407270685Sgjb heritage, many other articles and books written for &unix; 408270685Sgjb systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed 409270685Sgjb in the bibliography.</para> 41083425Sbmah </sect2> 41182666Sbmah </sect1> 41281327Sbmah 413257814Sgjb <sect1 xml: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 418270685Sgjb countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For 419270685Sgjb a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 420270685Sgjb <link 421270685Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 422270685Sgjb to &os;</quote></link> 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> 430