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1<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> 3%man; 4<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN"> 5%authors; 6<!ENTITY % mlists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN"> 7%mlists; 8<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 9%release; 10<!ENTITY % misc PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous FreeBSD Entities//EN"> 11%misc; 12]> 13 14<article> 15 <articleinfo> 16 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 17 18 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 19 20 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 114787 2003-05-06 20:01:07Z bmah $</pubdate> 21 22 <copyright> 23 <year>2000</year> 24 <year>2001</year> 25 <year>2002</year> 26 <year>2003</year> 27 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 28 </copyright> 29 </articleinfo> 30 31 <abstract> 32 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 33 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 34 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 35 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 36 information.</para> 37 </abstract> 38 39 <sect1 id="intro"> 40 <title>Introduction</title> 41 42 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 43 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 44 45 <sect2> 46 <title>About &os;</title> 47 48 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 49 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 50 hardware (i386), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles 51 (pc98), DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha computers (alpha), 52 and UltraSPARC machines (sparc64). Versions 53 for the IA64 (ia64), PowerPC (powerpc), and AMD 54 <quote>Hammer</quote> (amd64) architectures are currently under 55 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 56 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 57 from software development to games to Internet Service 58 Provision.</para> 59 60 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 61 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 62 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 63 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 64 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 65 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 66 all works.</para> 67 68 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 69 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 70 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 71 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 72 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 73 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 74 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 75 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 76 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 77 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 78 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 79 installed from the installation program.</para> 80 </sect2> 81 82 <sect2> 83 <title>Target Audience</title> 84 85<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 86 87 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 88 and various other users who want to get involved with the 89 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 90 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 91 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 92 work-in-progress.</para> 93 94 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 95 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 96 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 97 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 98 99 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 100 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 101 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 102 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 103 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 104 105]]> 106 107<![ %release.type.release; [ 108 109 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 110 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 111 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 112 dependability.</para> 113 114]]> 115 116 </sect2> 117 </sect1> 118 119 <sect1 id="obtain"> 120 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 121 122 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 123 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 124 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 125 installation.</para> 126 127 <sect2> 128 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 129 130 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 131 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 132 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 133 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 134 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 135 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 136 Collection.</para> 137 138 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 139 project are listed in the <ulink 140 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 141 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 142 </sect2> 143 144 <sect2> 145 <title>FTP</title> 146 147 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 148 optional packages from <ulink 149 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 150 &os; release site, or any of its 151 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 152 153 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 154 <ulink 155 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 156 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 157 url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 158 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 159 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 160 161 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 162 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 163 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 164 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 165 URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/hubs/">Mirroring 166 FreeBSD</ulink> article.</para> 167 168 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 169 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 170 needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 171 contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 172 a &os; release.</para> 173 174 </sect2> 175 </sect1> 176 177 <sect1 id="contacting"> 178 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 179 180 <sect2> 181 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 182 183 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 184 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 185 186 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 187 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 188 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 189 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 190 191 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 192 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 193 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 194 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 195 the &a.hackers;.</para> 196 197 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 198 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 199 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 200 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 201 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 202 203 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 204 wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo"> 205 FreeBSD Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 206 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 207 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 208 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 209 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 210 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 211 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 212 213 <important> 214 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 215 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 216 instead.</para> 217 </important> 218 </sect2> 219 220 <sect2> 221 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 222 223 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 224 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 225 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 226 course even more welcome.</para> 227 228 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 229 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 230 command. 231 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 232 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 233 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 234 possible. <ulink 235 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 236 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 237 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 238 have encountered.</para> 239 240 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 241 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 242 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 243 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 244 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 245 246 <para>For more information, <ulink 247 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/"><quote>Writing 248 FreeBSD Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 249 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 250 effective problem reports.</para> 251 </sect2> 252 </sect1> 253 254 <sect1 id="seealso"> 255 <title>Further Reading</title> 256 257 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 258 included with this distribution, while others are available 259 on-line or in print versions.</para> 260 261 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 262 <title>Release Documentation</title> 263 264 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 265 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 266 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 267 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 268 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 269 may also include other formats such as PostScript 270 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 271 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 272 273 <itemizedlist> 274 <listitem> 275 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 276 gives some general information about &os; as well as 277 some cursory notes about obtaining a 278 distribution.</para> 279 </listitem> 280 281 <listitem> 282 <para><filename>EARLY.TXT</filename>: A guide for early 283 adopters of &os; &release.current;. Highly recommended 284 reading for users new to &os; &release.branch; and/or the 285 5.<replaceable>X</replaceable> series of releases.</para> 286 </listitem> 287 288 <listitem> 289 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 290 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 291 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 292 &release.prev;).</para> 293 </listitem> 294 295 <listitem> 296 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 297 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 298 been tested and is known to work.</para> 299 </listitem> 300 301 <listitem> 302 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 303 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 304 media.</para> 305 </listitem> 306 307 <listitem> 308 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 309 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 310 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 311 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 312 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 313 contains the latest information on problems which have 314 been found and fixed since the release was 315 created.</para> 316 </listitem> 317 </itemizedlist> 318 319 <note> 320 <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 321 <filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>, 322 <filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>, and 323 <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>) contain information that 324 is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For 325 example, the alpha release notes contain information not 326 applicable to the i386, and vice versa. The architecture 327 for which each document applies will be listed in that 328 document's title.</para> 329 </note> 330 331 </para> 332 333 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 334 alpha, i386, ia64, pc98, and sparc64), these documents are generally available via the 335 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 336 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 337 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 338 339 <note> 340 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 341 given release before installing it, to learn about any 342 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 343 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 344 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 345 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 346 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 347 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 348 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 349 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 350 location).</para> 351 </note> 352 </sect2> 353 354 <sect2> 355 <title>Manual Pages</title> 356 357 <para>As with almost all &unix;-like operating systems, &os; comes 358 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 359 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 360 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 361 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 362 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 363 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 364 365 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 366 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 367 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 368 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 369 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 370 </sect2> 371 372 <sect2> 373 <title>Books and Articles</title> 374 375 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 376 maintained by the &os; Project, 377 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 378 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 379 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 380 and <ulink 381 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 382 are always available from the <ulink 383 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 384 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 385 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 386 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 387 388 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 389 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 390 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 391 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 392 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 393 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 394 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 395 distribution set.</para> 396 397 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 398 found in the <ulink 399 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 400 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 401 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 402 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 403 bibliography.</para> 404 </sect2> 405 </sect1> 406 407 <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 408 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 409 410 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 411 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 412 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 413 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 414 <ulink 415 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/"><quote>Contributors 416 to FreeBSD</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 417 mirrors.</para> 418 419 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 420 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 421 simply would not have been possible.</para> 422 </sect1> 423</article> 424 425<!-- 426 Local Variables: 427 mode: sgml 428 sgml-indent-data: t 429 sgml-omittag: nil 430 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 431 End: 432--> 433