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176082Sbmah<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 276082Sbmah<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> 376082Sbmah%man; 476082Sbmah<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN"> 576082Sbmah%authors; 676082Sbmah<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN"> 776082Sbmah%mlists; 876082Sbmah<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 976082Sbmah%release; 1082350Sbmah<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous FreeBSD Entities//EN"> 1182350Sbmah%misc; 1276082Sbmah]> 1376082Sbmah 1476082Sbmah<article> 1581327Sbmah<articleinfo> 1681327Sbmah <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1781327Sbmah 1881327Sbmah <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 1981484Sbmah 2081327Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 82350 2001-08-26 17:31:03Z bmah $</pubdate> 2181327Sbmah 2281327Sbmah <copyright> 2381327Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2481327Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2581327Sbmah <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 2681327Sbmah </copyright> 2781327Sbmah</articleinfo> 2881327Sbmah<abstract> 2981327Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 3081327Sbmah &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 3181327Sbmah documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 3281327Sbmah contacting the &os; development team.</para> 3381327Sbmah</abstract> 3481327Sbmah<sect1> 3581327Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 3681327Sbmah 3781327Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 3881327Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 3981327Sbmah 4081327Sbmah <sect2> 4181327Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 4281327Sbmah 4381327Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD 4481327Sbmah Lite for Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 4581327Sbmah hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions for 4681327Sbmah the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 4781327Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a 4881327Sbmah wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be 4981327Sbmah used for everything from software development to games to Internet Service 5081327Sbmah Provision.</para> 5181327Sbmah 5281327Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 5381327Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and all 5481327Sbmah utilities in the base distribution. With the 5581327Sbmah source distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 5681327Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for students, 5781327Sbmah researchers, or users who simply want to see how it all works.</para> 5881327Sbmah 5981327Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 6081327Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it easy 6181327Sbmah to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 6281327Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each 6381327Sbmah <quote>port</quote> consists of a set of scripts to retrieve, 6481327Sbmah configure, build, and install a piece of software, with a single 6582350Sbmah command. Over &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming 6681327Sbmah languages to graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and 6781327Sbmah comprehensive operating environment that extends far beyond what's 6881327Sbmah provided by many commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also 6981327Sbmah available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be 7081327Sbmah quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 7181339Sbmah </sect2> 7281327Sbmah 7381339Sbmah <sect2> 7481339Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 7581327Sbmah 7681339Sbmah<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 7781339Sbmah <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters and 7881339Sbmah various other users who want to get involved with the ongoing 7981339Sbmah development of &os;. While the &os; development team tries its 8081339Sbmah best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 8181339Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a work-in-progress.</para> 8281327Sbmah 8381339Sbmah <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 8481339Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the ongoing 8581339Sbmah development process of &os; &release.current; 8681339Sbmah (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 8781327Sbmah 8881339Sbmah <para>For those more interested 8981339Sbmah in doing business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 9081339Sbmah technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more 9181339Sbmah appropriate. Releases undergo a period of testing and quality 9281339Sbmah assurance checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 9381339Sbmah]]> 9481339Sbmah 9581339Sbmah<![ %release.type.release; [ 9681339Sbmah <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It has 9781339Sbmah undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 9881339Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and dependability.</para> 9981339Sbmah]]> 10081339Sbmah 10181339Sbmah </sect2> 10281484Sbmah</sect1> 10381339Sbmah 10481327Sbmah<sect1> 10581327Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 10681327Sbmah 10781327Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 10881327Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 10981327Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 11081327Sbmah installation.</para> 11181327Sbmah 11281327Sbmah <sect2> 11381327Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 11481327Sbmah 11582350Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may 11681327Sbmah be ordered on CDROM or DVD from several publishers. This is 11781327Sbmah frequently the most convenient way to obtain &os; for new 11881327Sbmah installations, as it provides a convenient way to quickly 11981327Sbmah reinstall the system if necessary. Some distributions include 12081327Sbmah some of the optional, precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the 12181327Sbmah &os; Ports Collection.</para> 12281327Sbmah 12381327Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD 12481327Sbmah publishers known to the project are listed in the <ulink 12581327Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 12681327Sbmah FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 12781327Sbmah </sect2> 12881327Sbmah 12981327Sbmah <sect2> 13081327Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 13181327Sbmah 13281327Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 13381327Sbmah optional packages from <ulink 13481327Sbmah url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which 13581327Sbmah is the 13681327Sbmah official &os; release site, or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 13781327Sbmah 13881327Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; 13981327Sbmah can be found in the <ulink 14081327Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 14181327Sbmah Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the 14281327Sbmah <ulink url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 14381327Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 14481327Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 14581327Sbmah 14681327Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are 14781327Sbmah always welcome. 14881327Sbmah Contact <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more 14981327Sbmah details on becoming an official mirror site.</para> 15081327Sbmah 15181327Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 15281327Sbmah to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files needed 15381327Sbmah for the install process itself. Some mirrors also contain some of 15481327Sbmah the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of a &os; release.</para> 15581327Sbmah 15681327Sbmah </sect2> 15781327Sbmah</sect1> 15881327Sbmah<sect1 id="contacting"> 15981327Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 16081327Sbmah 16181327Sbmah <sect2> 16281327Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 16381327Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, please send 16481327Sbmah mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 16581327Sbmah 16681327Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 16781327Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to keep 16881327Sbmah abreast of recent developments and changes that may affect the way 16981327Sbmah you use and maintain the system. 17081327Sbmah 17181327Sbmah <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 17281327Sbmah Project is always happy to 17381327Sbmah have extra hands willing to help — there are already far more 17481327Sbmah desired enhancements than there is time to implement them. 17581327Sbmah To contact the developers on technical matters, or with offers of help, please 17681327Sbmah send mail to the &a.hackers;.</para> 17781327Sbmah 17881327Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 17981327Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you have 18081327Sbmah slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in keeping up 18181327Sbmah with significant &os; events, you may find it preferable to 18281327Sbmah subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 18381327Sbmah 18481327Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 18581327Sbmah wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; 18681327Sbmah and include the keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself 18781327Sbmah somewhere in the body of the message. This will give you more 18881327Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, etc. 18981327Sbmah There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest 19081327Sbmah groups not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 19181327Sbmah through majordomo or the <ulink 19281327Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing lists 19381327Sbmah section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 19481327Sbmah 19581327Sbmah <important> 19681327Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists asking to 19781327Sbmah be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 19881327Sbmah instead.</para> 19981327Sbmah </important> 20081327Sbmah </sect2> 20181327Sbmah 20281327Sbmah <sect2> 20381327Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 20481327Sbmah 20581327Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 20681327Sbmah always valued — please do not hesitate to report any problems you 20781327Sbmah may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of course even more 20881327Sbmah welcome.</para> 20981327Sbmah 21081327Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine with 21181327Sbmah Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; command or 21281327Sbmah use the Web form at <ulink 21381327Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 21481327Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way will be filed and 21581327Sbmah their progress tracked; the &os; developers will do their best to respond to all 21681327Sbmah reported bugs as soon as possible. <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list of all active PRs</ulink> is 21781327Sbmah available on the &os; Web site; this list is useful to see what 21881327Sbmah potential problems other users have encountered.</para> 21981327Sbmah 22081327Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that should 22181327Sbmah be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using this interface 22281327Sbmah is highly preferred. 22381327Sbmah If, for some reason, you are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to 22481327Sbmah submit a bug report, you can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 22581327Sbmah 22681327Sbmah <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, 22781327Sbmah please try to determine whether the problem might have already been 22881327Sbmah fixed since.</para> 22981327Sbmah 23081327Sbmah </sect2> 23181327Sbmah 23281327Sbmah</sect1> 23381339Sbmah 23481327Sbmah<sect1> 23581339Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 23681339Sbmah 23781339Sbmah <sect2 id="release-docs"> 23881339Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 23981339Sbmah 24081339Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 24181339Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are provided 24281339Sbmah in various formats. Most distributions will include both ASCII 24381339Sbmah text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 24481339Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions may 24581339Sbmah also include other formats such as PostScript 24681339Sbmah (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 24781339Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 24881339Sbmah 24981339Sbmah <itemizedlist> 25081339Sbmah <listitem> 25181339Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 25281339Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as some 25381339Sbmah cursory notes about obtaining a distribution.</para> 25481339Sbmah </listitem> 25581339Sbmah <listitem> 25681339Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release notes, 25781339Sbmah showing what's new and different in &os; &release.current; 25881339Sbmah compared to &os; &release.prev;.</para> 25981339Sbmah </listitem> 26081339Sbmah <listitem> 26181339Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 26281339Sbmah compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has been 26381339Sbmah tested and is known to work.</para> 26481339Sbmah </listitem> 26581339Sbmah <listitem> 26681339Sbmah <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 26781339Sbmah instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 26881339Sbmah media.</para> 26981339Sbmah </listitem> 27081339Sbmah <listitem> 27181339Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 27281339Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in this 27381339Sbmah file, which is principally applicable to releases (as opposed to 27481339Sbmah snapshots). It is important to consult this file before 27581339Sbmah installing a release of &os;, as it contains 27681339Sbmah the latest information on problems which have been found and 27781339Sbmah fixed since the release was created.</para> 27881339Sbmah </listitem> 27981339Sbmah </itemizedlist> 28081339Sbmah 28181339Sbmah </para> 28281339Sbmah 28381339Sbmah <para>Most information is also available from the 28481339Sbmah Documentation menu during installation.</para> 28581339Sbmah 28681339Sbmah </sect2> 28781339Sbmah 28881339Sbmah <sect2> 28981339Sbmah 29081339Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 29181339Sbmah 29281339Sbmah <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 29381339Sbmah <ulink 29481339Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 29581339Sbmah & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the &os; Handbook. 29681339Sbmah Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many other articles and books written 29781339Sbmah for UNIX systems are applicable as well. A selection of these documents 29881339Sbmah can be found in the Handbook's <ulink 29981339Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 30081339Sbmah </para> 30181339Sbmah 30281339Sbmah <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read 30381339Sbmah all of the documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 30481339Sbmah all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 30581339Sbmah installation program. 30681339Sbmah It may seem 30781339Sbmah like a lot to read, but it's important to at least acquaint yourself with 30881339Sbmah the types of information available, should you run into problems later. Once 30981339Sbmah the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu by running 31081339Sbmah the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 31181339Sbmah 31281339Sbmah <para>On-line 31381339Sbmah versions of the <ulink 31481339Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 31581339Sbmah (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 31681339Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> are always 31781339Sbmah available from the <ulink 31881339Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 31981339Sbmah page</ulink> or its mirrors. 32081339Sbmah If you install the 32181339Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a 32281339Sbmah Web browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 32381339Sbmah 32481339Sbmah <note> 32581339Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any given 32681339Sbmah release before installing it, to learn about any 32781339Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 32881339Sbmah The 32981339Sbmah errata file accompanying each release 33081339Sbmah (most likely right next to this file) is already out of 33181339Sbmah date by definition, but other copies are kept updated on the Internet 33281339Sbmah and should be consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for 33381339Sbmah this release. These 33481339Sbmah other copies of the errata are located at 33581339Sbmah <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> 33681339Sbmah (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 33781339Sbmah location).</para> 33881339Sbmah </note> 33981339Sbmah </sect2> 34081339Sbmah</sect1> 34181339Sbmah 34281339Sbmah<sect1> 34381327Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 34481327Sbmah 34581327Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 34681327Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 34781327Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. 34881327Sbmah For a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 34981327Sbmah <ulink 35081327Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 35181327Sbmah to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its mirrors.</para> 35281327Sbmah 35381327Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users and 35481327Sbmah testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; simply would 35581327Sbmah not have been possible.</para> 35681327Sbmah 35781327Sbmah</sect1> 35876082Sbmah</article> 359