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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> 1582666Sbmah <articleinfo> 1682666Sbmah <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 1781327Sbmah 1882666Sbmah <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 1981484Sbmah 2082666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 82666 2001-08-31 17:26:18Z bmah $</pubdate> 2181327Sbmah 2282666Sbmah <copyright> 2382666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2482666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 2582666Sbmah <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 2682666Sbmah </copyright> 2782666Sbmah </articleinfo> 2881327Sbmah 2982666Sbmah <abstract> 3082666Sbmah <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 3182666Sbmah &release.current;. It includes a roadmap to the other release 3282666Sbmah documentation files, as well as some pointers on obtaining &os; and 3382666Sbmah contacting the &os; development team.</para> 3482666Sbmah </abstract> 3581327Sbmah 3682666Sbmah <sect1> 3782666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 3881327Sbmah 3982666Sbmah <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 4082666Sbmah latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 4181327Sbmah 4282666Sbmah <sect2> 4382666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 4481327Sbmah 4582666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 4682666Sbmah Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 4782666Sbmah hardware and Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers. Versions 4882666Sbmah for the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 4982666Sbmah development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 5082666Sbmah peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 5182666Sbmah from software development to games to Internet Service 5282666Sbmah Provision.</para> 5381327Sbmah 5482666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 5582666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 5682666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 5782666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 5882666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 5982666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 6082666Sbmah all works.</para> 6181327Sbmah 6282666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 6382666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 6482666Sbmah easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 6582666Sbmah utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 6682666Sbmah set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 6782666Sbmah piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 6882666Sbmah ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 6982666Sbmah applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 7082666Sbmah environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 7182666Sbmah commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also available as 7282666Sbmah pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 7382666Sbmah installed from the installation program.</para> 7482666Sbmah </sect2> 7582666Sbmah 7682666Sbmah <sect2> 7782666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 7882666Sbmah 7981339Sbmah<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 8081327Sbmah 8182666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 8282666Sbmah and various other users who want to get involved with the 8382666Sbmah ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 8482666Sbmah tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 8582666Sbmah advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 8682666Sbmah work-in-progress.</para> 8781327Sbmah 8882666Sbmah <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type are 8982666Sbmah technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 9082666Sbmah ongoing development process of &os; &release.current; (as 9182666Sbmah discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 9282666Sbmah 9382666Sbmah <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 9482666Sbmah in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 9582666Sbmah (such as &release.prev;) are frequently more appropriate. 9682666Sbmah Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 9782666Sbmah checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 9882666Sbmah 9981339Sbmah]]> 10081339Sbmah 10181339Sbmah<![ %release.type.release; [ 10282666Sbmah 10382666Sbmah <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 10482666Sbmah has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 10582666Sbmah checking to ensure the highest reliability and 10682666Sbmah dependability.</para> 10782666Sbmah 10881339Sbmah]]> 10981339Sbmah 11082666Sbmah </sect2> 11182666Sbmah </sect1> 11281339Sbmah 11382666Sbmah <sect1> 11482666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 11581327Sbmah 11682666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 11782666Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily of use for obtaining a 11882666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 11982666Sbmah installation.</para> 12081327Sbmah 12182666Sbmah <sect2> 12282666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 12381327Sbmah 12482666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 12582666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 12682666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 12782666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 12882666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 12982666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 13082666Sbmah Collection.</para> 13181327Sbmah 13282666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 13382666Sbmah project are listed in the <ulink 13482666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 13582666Sbmah FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 13682666Sbmah </sect2> 13781327Sbmah 13882666Sbmah <sect2> 13982666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 14081327Sbmah 14182666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 14282666Sbmah optional packages from <ulink 14382666Sbmah url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 14482666Sbmah &os; release site, or any of its 14582666Sbmah <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 14681327Sbmah 14782666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 14882666Sbmah <ulink 14982666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 15082666Sbmah Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 15182666Sbmah url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 15282666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 15382666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 15481327Sbmah 15582666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 15682666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 15782666Sbmah becoming an official mirror site.</para> 15881327Sbmah 15982666Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 16082666Sbmah to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 16182666Sbmah needed for the install process itself. Some mirrors also 16282666Sbmah contain some of the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 16382666Sbmah a &os; release.</para> 16481327Sbmah 16582666Sbmah </sect2> 16682666Sbmah </sect1> 16781327Sbmah 16882666Sbmah <sect1 id="contacting"> 16982666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 17081327Sbmah 17182666Sbmah <sect2> 17282666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 17381327Sbmah 17482666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 17582666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 17681327Sbmah 17782666Sbmah <para>If you're tracking the -current development efforts, you 17882666Sbmah <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 17982666Sbmah keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 18082666Sbmah affect the way you use and maintain the system. 18181327Sbmah 18282666Sbmah <para>Additionally, being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 18382666Sbmah Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help 18482666Sbmah — there are already far more desired enhancements than 18582666Sbmah there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 18682666Sbmah technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 18782666Sbmah the &a.hackers;.</para> 18881327Sbmah 18982666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 19082666Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic and if you 19182666Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access and are only interested in 19282666Sbmah keeping up with significant &os; events, you may find it 19382666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 19481327Sbmah 19582666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 19682666Sbmah wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; and include the 19782666Sbmah keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself somewhere 19882666Sbmah in the body of the message. This will give you more 19982666Sbmah information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 20082666Sbmah etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 20182666Sbmah interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 20282666Sbmah obtained either through majordomo or the <ulink 20382666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 20482666Sbmah lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 20581327Sbmah 20682666Sbmah <important> 20782666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 20882666Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 20982666Sbmah instead.</para> 21082666Sbmah </important> 21182666Sbmah </sect2> 21281327Sbmah 21382666Sbmah <sect2> 21482666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 21581327Sbmah 21682666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 21782666Sbmah always valued — please do not hesitate to report any 21882666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 21982666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 22081327Sbmah 22182666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 22282666Sbmah with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 22382666Sbmah command or use the Web form at <ulink 22482666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 22582666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 22682666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 22782666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 22882666Sbmah possible. <ulink 22982666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 23082666Sbmah of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 23182666Sbmah this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 23282666Sbmah have encountered.</para> 23381327Sbmah 23482666Sbmah <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 23582666Sbmah should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 23682666Sbmah this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 23782666Sbmah are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 23882666Sbmah can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 23981327Sbmah 24082666Sbmah <para>In any case, before submitting a PR, please try to 24182666Sbmah determine whether the problem might have already been fixed 24282666Sbmah since.</para> 24382666Sbmah </sect2> 24482666Sbmah </sect1> 24581339Sbmah 24682666Sbmah <sect1> 24782666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 24881339Sbmah 24982666Sbmah <sect2 id="release-docs"> 25082666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 25181339Sbmah 25282666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 25382666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 25482666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 25582666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 25682666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 25782666Sbmah may also include other formats such as PostScript 25882666Sbmah (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 25982666Sbmah (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 26081339Sbmah 26182666Sbmah <itemizedlist> 26282666Sbmah <listitem> 26382666Sbmah <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 26482666Sbmah gives some general information about &os; as well as 26582666Sbmah some cursory notes about obtaining a 26682666Sbmah distribution.</para> 26782666Sbmah </listitem> 26881339Sbmah 26982666Sbmah <listitem> 27082666Sbmah <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 27182666Sbmah notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 27282666Sbmah &release.current; compared to &os; 27382666Sbmah &release.prev;.</para> 27482666Sbmah </listitem> 27581339Sbmah 27682666Sbmah <listitem> 27782666Sbmah <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 27882666Sbmah compatability list, showing devices with which &os; has 27982666Sbmah been tested and is known to work.</para> 28082666Sbmah </listitem> 28181339Sbmah 28282666Sbmah <listitem> 28382666Sbmah <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 28482666Sbmah instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 28582666Sbmah media.</para> 28682666Sbmah </listitem> 28781339Sbmah 28882666Sbmah <listitem> 28982666Sbmah <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 29082666Sbmah Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 29182666Sbmah this file, which is principally applicable to releases 29282666Sbmah (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 29382666Sbmah this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 29482666Sbmah contains the latest information on problems which have 29582666Sbmah been found and fixed since the release was 29682666Sbmah created.</para> 29782666Sbmah </listitem> 29882666Sbmah </itemizedlist> 29982666Sbmah </para> 30081339Sbmah 30182666Sbmah <para>Most information is also available from the Documentation 30282666Sbmah menu during installation.</para> 30382666Sbmah </sect2> 30481339Sbmah 30582666Sbmah <sect2> 30682666Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 30781339Sbmah 30882666Sbmah <para>Pointers to more documentation on &os; can be found in the 30982666Sbmah <ulink 31082666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html#BIBLIOGRAPHY-FREEBSD">Books 31182666Sbmah & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD</ulink> section of the 31282666Sbmah &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, many 31382666Sbmah other articles and books written for UNIX systems are 31482666Sbmah applicable as well. A selection of these documents can be 31582666Sbmah found in the Handbook's <ulink 31682666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">Bibliography</ulink>. 31782666Sbmah </para> 31881339Sbmah 31982666Sbmah <para>If you're new to &os; then you should also read all of the 32082666Sbmah documentation files listed in <xref linkend="release-docs">, 32182666Sbmah all of which are available from the Documentation menu in the 32282666Sbmah installation program. It may seem like a lot to read, but 32382666Sbmah it's important to at least acquaint yourself with the types of 32482666Sbmah information available, should you run into problems later. 32582666Sbmah Once the system is installed, you can also revisit this menu 32682666Sbmah by running the &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 32781339Sbmah 32882666Sbmah <para>On-line versions of the <ulink 32982666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 33082666Sbmah (Frequently Asked Questions document) and <ulink 33182666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 33282666Sbmah are always available from the <ulink 33382666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 33482666Sbmah page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 33582666Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 33682666Sbmah browser to read the FAQ and Handbook locally.</para> 33781339Sbmah 33882666Sbmah <note> 33982666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 34082666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 34182666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 34282666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 34382666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 34482666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 34582666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 34682666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 34782666Sbmah <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 34882666Sbmah well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 34982666Sbmah location).</para> 35082666Sbmah </note> 35182666Sbmah </sect2> 35282666Sbmah </sect1> 35381327Sbmah 35482666Sbmah <sect1> 35582666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 35681327Sbmah 35782666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 35882666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 35982666Sbmah countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 36082666Sbmah complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 36182666Sbmah <ulink 36282666Sbmah url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/">Contributors 36382666Sbmah to FreeBSD</ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 36482666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 36581327Sbmah 36682666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 36782666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 36882666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 36982666Sbmah </sect1> 37076082Sbmah</article> 37182666Sbmah 37282666Sbmah<!-- 37382666Sbmah Local Variables: 37482666Sbmah mode: sgml 37582666Sbmah sgml-indent-data: t 37682666Sbmah sgml-omittag: nil 37782666Sbmah sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 37882666Sbmah End: 37982666Sbmah--> 380