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1<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [ 2<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN"> 3%articles.ent; 4 5<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN"> 6%release; 7]> 8 9<article> 10 <articleinfo> 11 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 12 13 <corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor> 14 15 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: head/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.sgml 145265 2005-04-19 09:43:53Z hrs $</pubdate> 16 17 <copyright> 18 <year>2000</year> 19 <year>2001</year> 20 <year>2002</year> 21 <year>2003</year> 22 <year>2004</year> 23 <year>2005</year> 24 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 25 </copyright> 26 27 <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 28 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 29 &tm-attrib.intel; 30 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 31 &tm-attrib.sparc; 32 &tm-attrib.general; 33 </legalnotice> 34 </articleinfo> 35 36 <abstract> 37 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 38 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 39 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 40 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 41 information.</para> 42 </abstract> 43 44 <sect1 id="intro"> 45 <title>Introduction</title> 46 47 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 48 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 49 50 <sect2> 51 <title>About &os;</title> 52 53 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 54 DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha/AXP computers (alpha), 55 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (amd64), 56 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (i386), 57 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (ia64), 58 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (pc98), 59 and &ultrasparc; machines (sparc64). Versions 60 for the &powerpc; (powerpc), and &mips; (mips) 61 architectures are currently under 62 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 63 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 64 from software development to games to Internet Service 65 Provision.</para> 66 67 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 68 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 69 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 70 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 71 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 72 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 73 all works.</para> 74 75 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 76 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 77 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 78 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 79 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 80 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 81 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 82 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 83 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 84 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 85 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 86 installed from the installation program.</para> 87 </sect2> 88 89 <sect2> 90 <title>Target Audience</title> 91 92<![ %release.type.current; [ 93 94 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 95 and various other users who want to get involved with the 96 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 97 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 98 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 99 work-in-progress.</para> 100 101 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 102 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 103 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 104 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 105 106 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 107 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 108 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 109 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 110 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 111 112]]> 113 114<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 115 116 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 117 and various other users who want to get involved with the 118 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 119 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 120 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 121 work-in-progress.</para> 122 123 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 124 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 125 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 126 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 127 128 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 129 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 130 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 131 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 132 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 133 134]]> 135 136<![ %release.type.release; [ 137 138 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 139 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 140 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 141 dependability.</para> 142 143]]> 144 145 </sect2> 146 </sect1> 147 148 <sect1 id="obtain"> 149 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 150 151 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 152 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 153 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 154 installation.</para> 155 156 <sect2> 157 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 158 159 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 160 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 161 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 162 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 163 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 164 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 165 Collection.</para> 166 167 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 168 project are listed in the <ulink 169 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 170 &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 171 </sect2> 172 173 <sect2> 174 <title>FTP</title> 175 176 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 177 optional packages from <ulink 178 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 179 &os; release site, or any of its 180 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 181 182 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 183 <ulink 184 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 185 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 186 url="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 187 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 188 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 189 190 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 191 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 192 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 193 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 194 URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 195 &os;</ulink> article.</para> 196 197 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 198 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 199 needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 200 contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 201 a &os; release.</para> 202 203 </sect2> 204 </sect1> 205 206 <sect1 id="contacting"> 207 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 208 209 <sect2> 210 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 211 212 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 213 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 214 215 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 216 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 217 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 218 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 219 220 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 221 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 222 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 223 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 224 the &a.hackers;.</para> 225 226 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 227 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 228 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 229 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 230 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 231 232 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 233 wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 234 &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 235 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 236 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 237 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 238 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 239 url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 240 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 241 242 <important> 243 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 244 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 245 instead.</para> 246 </important> 247 </sect2> 248 249 <sect2> 250 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 251 252 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 253 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 254 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 255 course even more welcome.</para> 256 257 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 258 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 259 command. 260 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 261 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 262 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 263 possible. <ulink 264 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 265 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 266 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 267 have encountered.</para> 268 269 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 270 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 271 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 272 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 273 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 274 275 <para>For more information, <ulink 276 url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 277 &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 278 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 279 effective problem reports.</para> 280 </sect2> 281 </sect1> 282 283 <sect1 id="seealso"> 284 <title>Further Reading</title> 285 286 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 287 included with this distribution, while others are available 288 on-line or in print versions.</para> 289 290 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 291 <title>Release Documentation</title> 292 293 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 294 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 295 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 296 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 297 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 298 may also include other formats such as PostScript 299 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 300 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 301 302 <itemizedlist> 303 <listitem> 304 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 305 gives some general information about &os; as well as 306 some cursory notes about obtaining a 307 distribution.</para> 308 </listitem> 309 310 <listitem> 311 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 312 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 313 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 314 &release.prev;).</para> 315 </listitem> 316 317 <listitem> 318 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 319 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 320 been tested and is known to work.</para> 321 </listitem> 322 323 <listitem> 324 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 325 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 326 media.</para> 327 </listitem> 328 329 <listitem> 330 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 331 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 332 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 333 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 334 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 335 contains the latest information on problems which have 336 been found and fixed since the release was 337 created.</para> 338 </listitem> 339 </itemizedlist> 340 341 <note> 342 <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 343 <filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>, 344 <filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>, and 345 <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>) contain information that 346 is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For 347 example, the alpha release notes contain information not 348 applicable to the &i386;, and vice versa. The architecture 349 for which each document applies will be listed in that 350 document's title.</para> 351 </note> 352 353 </para> 354 355 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 356 alpha, &i386;, ia64, pc98, and &sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 357 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 358 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 359 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 360 361 <note> 362 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 363 given release before installing it, to learn about any 364 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 365 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 366 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 367 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 368 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 369 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 370 <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 371 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 372 location).</para> 373 </note> 374 </sect2> 375 376 <sect2> 377 <title>Manual Pages</title> 378 379 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 380 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 381 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 382 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 383 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 384 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 385 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 386 387 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 388 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 389 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 390 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 391 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 392 </sect2> 393 394 <sect2> 395 <title>Books and Articles</title> 396 397 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 398 maintained by the &os; Project, 399 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 400 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 401 url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 402 and <ulink 403 url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 404 are always available from the <ulink 405 url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 406 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 407 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 408 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 409 410 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 411 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 412 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 413 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 414 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 415 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 416 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 417 distribution set.</para> 418 419 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 420 found in the <ulink 421 url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 422 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 423 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 424 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 425 bibliography.</para> 426 </sect2> 427 </sect1> 428 429 <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 430 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 431 432 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 433 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 434 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 435 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 436 <ulink 437 url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 438 to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 439 mirrors.</para> 440 441 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 442 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 443 simply would not have been possible.</para> 444 </sect1> 445</article> 446 447<!-- 448 Local Variables: 449 mode: sgml 450 sgml-indent-data: t 451 sgml-omittag: nil 452 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 453 End: 454--> 455