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1<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> 2<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V5.0-Based Extension//EN" 3 "../../../share/xml/freebsd50.dtd" [ 4<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN" "release.ent"> 5 %release; 6]> 7<!-- 8 Local Variables: 9 mode: sgml 10 sgml-indent-data: t 11 sgml-omittag: nil 12 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 13 End: 14--> 15<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"> 16 <info><title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 17 18 19 <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author> 20 21 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: stable/10/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 257814 2013-11-07 21:08:12Z gjb $</pubdate> 22 23 <copyright> 24 <year>2000</year> 25 <year>2001</year> 26 <year>2002</year> 27 <year>2003</year> 28 <year>2004</year> 29 <year>2005</year> 30 <year>2006</year> 31 <year>2007</year> 32 <year>2008</year> 33 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 34 </copyright> 35 36 <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 37 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 38 &tm-attrib.intel; 39 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 40 &tm-attrib.sparc; 41 &tm-attrib.general; 42 </legalnotice> 43 44 <abstract> 45 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 46 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 47 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 48 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 49 information.</para> 50 </abstract> 51 </info> 52 53 <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 54 <title>Introduction</title> 55 56 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 57 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 58 59 <sect2> 60 <title>About &os;</title> 61 62 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 63 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 64 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 65 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 66 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 67 and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 68 for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 69 &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 70 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 71 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 72 from software development to games to Internet Service 73 Provision.</para> 74 75 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 76 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 77 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 78 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 79 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 80 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 81 all works.</para> 82 83 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 84 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 85 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 86 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 87 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 88 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 89 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 90 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 91 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 92 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 93 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 94 installed from the installation program.</para> 95 </sect2> 96 97 <sect2> 98 <title>Target Audience</title> 99 100 <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 101 and various other users who want to get involved with the 102 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 103 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 104 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 105 work-in-progress.</para> 106 107 <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 108 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 109 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 110 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 111 112 <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 113 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 114 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 115 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 116 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 117 118 <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 119 and various other users who want to get involved with the 120 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 121 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 122 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 123 work-in-progress.</para> 124 125 <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 126 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 127 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 128 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 129 130 <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 131 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 132 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 133 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 134 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 135 136 <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 137 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 138 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 139 dependability.</para> 140 </sect2> 141 </sect1> 142 143 <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 144 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 145 146 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 147 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 148 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 149 installation.</para> 150 151 <sect2> 152 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 153 154 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 155 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 156 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 157 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 158 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 159 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 160 Collection, or other extra material.</para> 161 162 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 163 project are listed in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 164 &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 165 </sect2> 166 167 <sect2> 168 <title>FTP</title> 169 170 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 171 optional packages from <uri xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, which is the official 172 &os; release site, or any of its 173 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 174 175 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 176 <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 177 Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 178 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 179 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 180 181 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 182 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 183 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 184 information for mirror sites at the <link xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 185 &os;</link> article.</para> 186 187 <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 188 create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 189 floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 190 files necessary to do an installation over the network. 191 Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 192 the most current release.</para> 193 </sect2> 194 </sect1> 195 196 <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 197 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 198 199 <sect2> 200 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 201 202 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 203 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 204 205 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 206 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 207 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 208 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 209 210 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 211 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 212 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 213 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 214 the &a.hackers;.</para> 215 216 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 217 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 218 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 219 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 220 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 221 222 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 223 wishing to do so. Visit the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 224 &os; Mailman Info Page</link>. This will give you more 225 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 226 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 227 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 228 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 229 lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 230 231 <important> 232 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 233 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 234 instead.</para> 235 </important> 236 </sect2> 237 238 <sect2> 239 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 240 241 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 242 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 243 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 244 course even more welcome.</para> 245 246 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 247 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 248 command. 249 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 250 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 251 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 252 possible. <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 253 of all active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; 254 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 255 have encountered.</para> 256 257 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 258 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 259 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 260 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 261 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 262 263 <para>For more information, <link xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 264 &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; Web 265 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 266 effective problem reports.</para> 267 </sect2> 268 </sect1> 269 270 <sect1 xml:id="seealso"> 271 <title>Further Reading</title> 272 273 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 274 included with this distribution, while others are available 275 on-line or in print versions.</para> 276 277 <sect2 xml:id="release-docs"> 278 <title>Release Documentation</title> 279 280 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 281 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 282 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 283 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 284 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 285 may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 286 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 287 288 <itemizedlist> 289 <listitem> 290 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 291 gives some general information about &os; as well as 292 some cursory notes about obtaining a 293 distribution.</para> 294 </listitem> 295 296 <listitem> 297 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 298 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 299 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 300 &release.prev;).</para> 301 </listitem> 302 303 <listitem> 304 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 305 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 306 been tested and is known to work.</para> 307 </listitem> 308 309 <listitem> 310 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 311 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 312 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 313 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 314 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 315 contains the latest information on problems which have 316 been found and fixed since the release was 317 created.</para> 318 </listitem> 319 </itemizedlist> 320 </para> 321 322 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 323 &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 324 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 325 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 326 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 327 328 <note> 329 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 330 given release before installing it, to learn about any 331 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 332 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 333 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 334 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 335 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 336 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 337 <uri xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> (as 338 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 339 location).</para> 340 </note> 341 </sect2> 342 343 <sect2> 344 <title>Manual Pages</title> 345 346 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 347 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 348 &man.man.1; command or through the <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 349 pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 350 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 351 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 352 353 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 354 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 355 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 356 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 357 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 358 </sect2> 359 360 <sect2> 361 <title>Books and Articles</title> 362 363 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 364 maintained by the &os; Project, 365 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 366 Questions document). On-line versions of the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> 367 and <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> 368 are always available from the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 369 page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 370 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 371 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 372 note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 373 installing &os;.</para> 374 375 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 376 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 377 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 378 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 379 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 380 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 381 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 382 distribution set.</para> 383 384 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 385 found in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 386 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 387 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 388 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 389 bibliography.</para> 390 </sect2> 391 </sect1> 392 393 <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements"> 394 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 395 396 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 397 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 398 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 399 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 400 <link xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 401 to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 402 mirrors.</para> 403 404 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 405 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 406 simply would not have been possible.</para> 407 </sect1> 408</article> 409