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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 165592 2006-12-28 21:12:57Z bmah $</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 <year>2006</year> 25 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 26 </copyright> 27 28 <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 29 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 30 &tm-attrib.intel; 31 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 32 &tm-attrib.sparc; 33 &tm-attrib.general; 34 </legalnotice> 35 </articleinfo> 36 37 <abstract> 38 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 39 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 40 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 41 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 42 information.</para> 43 </abstract> 44 45 <sect1 id="intro"> 46 <title>Introduction</title> 47 48 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 49 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 50 51 <sect2> 52 <title>About &os;</title> 53 54 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 55 DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha/AXP computers (alpha), 56 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (amd64), 57 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (i386), 58 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (ia64), 59 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (pc98), 60 and &ultrasparc; machines (sparc64). Versions 61 for the &powerpc; (powerpc), and &mips; (mips) 62 architectures are currently under 63 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 64 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 65 from software development to games to Internet Service 66 Provision.</para> 67 68 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 69 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 70 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 71 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 72 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 73 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 74 all works.</para> 75 76 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 77 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 78 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 79 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 80 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 81 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 82 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 83 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 84 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 85 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 86 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 87 installed from the installation program.</para> 88 </sect2> 89 90 <sect2> 91 <title>Target Audience</title> 92 93<![ %release.type.current; [ 94 95 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 96 and various other users who want to get involved with the 97 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 98 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 99 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 100 work-in-progress.</para> 101 102 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 103 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 104 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 105 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 106 107 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 108 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 109 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 110 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 111 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 112 113]]> 114 115<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 116 117 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 118 and various other users who want to get involved with the 119 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 120 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 121 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 122 work-in-progress.</para> 123 124 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 125 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 126 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 127 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 128 129 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 130 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 131 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 132 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 133 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 134 135]]> 136 137<![ %release.type.release; [ 138 139 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 140 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 141 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 142 dependability.</para> 143 144]]> 145 146 </sect2> 147 </sect1> 148 149 <sect1 id="obtain"> 150 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 151 152 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 153 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 154 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 155 installation.</para> 156 157 <sect2> 158 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 159 160 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 161 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 162 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 163 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 164 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 165 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 166 Collection.</para> 167 168 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 169 project are listed in the <ulink 170 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 171 &os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 172 </sect2> 173 174 <sect2> 175 <title>FTP</title> 176 177 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 178 optional packages from <ulink 179 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 180 &os; release site, or any of its 181 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 182 183 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 184 <ulink 185 url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 186 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 187 url="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 188 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 189 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 190 191 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 192 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 193 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 194 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 195 URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 196 &os;</ulink> article.</para> 197 198 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 199 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 200 needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 201 contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 202 a &os; release.</para> 203 204 </sect2> 205 </sect1> 206 207 <sect1 id="contacting"> 208 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 209 210 <sect2> 211 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 212 213 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 214 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 215 216 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 217 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 218 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 219 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 220 221 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 222 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 223 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 224 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 225 the &a.hackers;.</para> 226 227 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 228 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 229 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 230 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 231 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 232 233 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 234 wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 235 &os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more 236 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 237 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 238 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 239 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink 240 url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 241 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 242 243 <important> 244 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 245 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 246 instead.</para> 247 </important> 248 </sect2> 249 250 <sect2> 251 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 252 253 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 254 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 255 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 256 course even more welcome.</para> 257 258 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 259 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 260 command. 261 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 262 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 263 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 264 possible. <ulink 265 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 266 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 267 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 268 have encountered.</para> 269 270 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 271 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 272 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 273 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 274 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 275 276 <para>For more information, <ulink 277 url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 278 &os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 279 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 280 effective problem reports.</para> 281 </sect2> 282 </sect1> 283 284 <sect1 id="seealso"> 285 <title>Further Reading</title> 286 287 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 288 included with this distribution, while others are available 289 on-line or in print versions.</para> 290 291 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 292 <title>Release Documentation</title> 293 294 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 295 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 296 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 297 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 298 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 299 may also include other formats such as PostScript 300 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 301 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 302 303 <itemizedlist> 304 <listitem> 305 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 306 gives some general information about &os; as well as 307 some cursory notes about obtaining a 308 distribution.</para> 309 </listitem> 310 311 <listitem> 312 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 313 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 314 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 315 &release.prev;).</para> 316 </listitem> 317 318 <listitem> 319 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 320 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 321 been tested and is known to work.</para> 322 </listitem> 323 324 <listitem> 325 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 326 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 327 media.</para> 328 </listitem> 329 330 <listitem> 331 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 332 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 333 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 334 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 335 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 336 contains the latest information on problems which have 337 been found and fixed since the release was 338 created.</para> 339 </listitem> 340 </itemizedlist> 341 342 <note> 343 <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 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 hardware 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