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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 171891 2007-08-18 17:11:14Z 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 <year>2007</year> 26 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 27 </copyright> 28 29 <legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 30 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 31 &tm-attrib.intel; 32 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 33 &tm-attrib.sparc; 34 &tm-attrib.general; 35 </legalnotice> 36 </articleinfo> 37 38 <abstract> 39 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 40 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 41 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 42 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 43 information.</para> 44 </abstract> 45 46 <sect1 id="intro"> 47 <title>Introduction</title> 48 49 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 50 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 51 52 <sect2> 53 <title>About &os;</title> 54 55 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 56 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 57 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 58 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 59 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 60 and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 61 for the &powerpc; (&arch.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, or other extra material.</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 ISO images generally used to 199 create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 200 floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 201 files necessary to do an installation over the network. 202 Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 203 the most current release.</para> 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 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>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 325 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 326 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 327 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 328 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 329 contains the latest information on problems which have 330 been found and fixed since the release was 331 created.</para> 332 </listitem> 333 </itemizedlist> 334 </para> 335 336 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 337 &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 338 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 339 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 340 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 341 342 <note> 343 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 344 given release before installing it, to learn about any 345 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 346 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 347 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 348 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 349 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 350 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 351 <ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as 352 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 353 location).</para> 354 </note> 355 </sect2> 356 357 <sect2> 358 <title>Manual Pages</title> 359 360 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 361 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 362 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 363 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 364 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 365 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 366 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 367 368 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 369 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 370 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 371 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 372 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 373 </sect2> 374 375 <sect2> 376 <title>Books and Articles</title> 377 378 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 379 maintained by the &os; Project, 380 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 381 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 382 url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink> 383 and <ulink 384 url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink> 385 are always available from the <ulink 386 url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 387 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 388 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 389 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 390 note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 391 installing &os;.</para> 392 393 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 394 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 395 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 396 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 397 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 398 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 399 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 400 distribution set.</para> 401 402 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 403 found in the <ulink 404 url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 405 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 406 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 407 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 408 bibliography.</para> 409 </sect2> 410 </sect1> 411 412 <sect1 id="acknowledgements"> 413 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 414 415 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 416 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 417 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 418 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 419 <ulink 420 url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 421 to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 422 mirrors.</para> 423 424 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 425 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 426 simply would not have been possible.</para> 427 </sect1> 428</article> 429 430<!-- 431 Local Variables: 432 mode: sgml 433 sgml-indent-data: t 434 sgml-omittag: nil 435 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 436 End: 437--> 438