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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 93443 2002-03-30 17:34:31Z bmah $</pubdate> 21 22 <copyright> 23 <year>2000</year> 24 <year>2001</year> 25 <year>2002</year> 26 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The FreeBSD Documentation Project</holder> 27 </copyright> 28 </articleinfo> 29 30 <abstract> 31 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 32 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 33 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 34 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 35 information.</para> 36 </abstract> 37 38 <sect1> 39 <title>Introduction</title> 40 41 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 42 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 43 44 <sect2> 45 <title>About &os;</title> 46 47 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 48 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 49 hardware, Compaq (formerly DEC) Alpha computers, and UltraSPARC machines. Versions 50 for the IA64 and PowerPC architectures are currently under 51 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 52 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 53 from software development to games to Internet Service 54 Provision.</para> 55 56 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 57 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 58 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 59 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 60 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 61 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 62 all works.</para> 63 64 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 65 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 66 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional UNIX 67 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 68 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 69 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 70 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 71 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 72 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 73 commercial versions of UNIX. Most ports are also available as 74 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 75 installed from the installation program.</para> 76 </sect2> 77 78 <sect2> 79 <title>Target Audience</title> 80 81<![ %release.type.snapshot; [ 82 83 <para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 84 and various other users who want to get involved with the 85 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 86 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 87 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 88 work-in-progress.</para> 89 90 <para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 91 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 92 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 93 discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 94 95 <para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 96 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 97 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 98 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 99 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 100 101]]> 102 103<![ %release.type.release; [ 104 105 <para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 106 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 107 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 108 dependability.</para> 109 110]]> 111 112 </sect2> 113 </sect1> 114 115 <sect1> 116 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 117 118 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 119 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 120 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 121 installation.</para> 122 123 <sect2> 124 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 125 126 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 127 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 128 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 129 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 130 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 131 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 132 Collection.</para> 133 134 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 135 project are listed in the <ulink 136 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 137 FreeBSD</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 138 </sect2> 139 140 <sect2> 141 <title>FTP</title> 142 143 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 144 optional packages from <ulink 145 url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official 146 &os; release site, or any of its 147 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 148 149 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 150 <ulink 151 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 152 Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink 153 url="http://www.freebsdmirrors.org/"></ulink> Web pages. 154 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 155 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 156 157 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 158 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 159 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 160 information for mirror sites at the <ulink 161 URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/hubs/">Mirroring 162 FreeBSD</ulink> article.</para> 163 164 <para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary 165 to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files 166 needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also 167 contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of 168 a &os; release.</para> 169 170 </sect2> 171 </sect1> 172 173 <sect1 id="contacting"> 174 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 175 176 <sect2> 177 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 178 179 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 180 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 181 182 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 183 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to 184 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 185 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 186 187 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 188 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 189 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 190 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 191 the &a.hackers;.</para> 192 193 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 194 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 195 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 196 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 197 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 198 199 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 200 wishing to do so. Send mail to &a.majordomo; and include the 201 keyword <literal>help</literal> on a line by itself somewhere 202 in the body of the message. This will give you more 203 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 204 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 205 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 206 obtained either through majordomo or the <ulink 207 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 208 lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para> 209 210 <important> 211 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 212 asking to be subscribed. Use the &a.majordomo; address 213 instead.</para> 214 </important> 215 </sect2> 216 217 <sect2> 218 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 219 220 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 221 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 222 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 223 course even more welcome.</para> 224 225 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 226 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 227 command or use the Web form at <ulink 228 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html">http://www.FreeBSD.org/send-pr.html</ulink>. 229 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 230 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 231 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 232 possible. <ulink 233 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 234 of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site; 235 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 236 have encountered.</para> 237 238 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 239 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 240 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 241 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 242 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 243 244 <para>For more information, <ulink 245 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/"><quote>Writing 246 FreeBSD Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web 247 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 248 effective problem reports.</para> 249 </sect2> 250 </sect1> 251 252 <sect1> 253 <title>Further Reading</title> 254 255 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 256 included with this distribution, while others are available 257 on-line or in print versions.</para> 258 259 <sect2 id="release-docs"> 260 <title>Release Documentation</title> 261 262 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 263 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 264 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 265 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 266 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 267 may also include other formats such as PostScript 268 (<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format 269 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 270 271 <itemizedlist> 272 <listitem> 273 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 274 gives some general information about &os; as well as 275 some cursory notes about obtaining a 276 distribution.</para> 277 </listitem> 278 279 <listitem> 280 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 281 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 282 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 283 &release.prev;).</para> 284 </listitem> 285 286 <listitem> 287 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 288 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 289 been tested and is known to work.</para> 290 </listitem> 291 292 <listitem> 293 <para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation 294 instructions for installing &os; from its distribution 295 media.</para> 296 </listitem> 297 298 <listitem> 299 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 300 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 301 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 302 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 303 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 304 contains the latest information on problems which have 305 been found and fixed since the release was 306 created.</para> 307 </listitem> 308 </itemizedlist> 309 310 <note> 311 <para>Several of these documents (in particular, 312 <filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>, 313 <filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>, and 314 <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>) contain information that 315 is specific to a particular hardware architecture. For 316 example, the alpha release notes contain information not 317 applicable to the i386, and vice versa. The architecture 318 for which each document applies will be listed in that 319 document's title.</para> 320 </note> 321 322 </para> 323 324 <para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently 325 the i386 and alpha), these documents are generally available via the 326 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 327 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 328 &man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para> 329 330 <note> 331 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 332 given release before installing it, to learn about any 333 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 334 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 335 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 336 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 337 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 338 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 339 <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"></ulink> (as 340 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 341 location).</para> 342 </note> 343 </sect2> 344 345 <sect2> 346 <title>Manual Pages</title> 347 348 <para>As with almost all UNIX-like operating systems, &os; comes 349 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 350 &man.man.1; command or through the <ulink 351 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 352 pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 353 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 354 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 355 356 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to given 357 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 358 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 359 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 360 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 361 </sect2> 362 363 <sect2> 364 <title>Books and Articles</title> 365 366 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 367 maintained by the &os; Project, 368 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 369 Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink 370 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/">Handbook</ulink> 371 and <ulink 372 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/">FAQ</ulink> 373 are always available from the <ulink 374 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">FreeBSD Documentation 375 page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the 376 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 377 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para> 378 379 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 380 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 381 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 382 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 383 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 384 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 385 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 386 distribution set.</para> 387 388 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 389 found in the <ulink 390 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink> 391 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong UNIX heritage, 392 many other articles and books written for UNIX systems are 393 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 394 bibliography.</para> 395 </sect2> 396 </sect1> 397 398 <sect1> 399 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 400 401 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 402 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 403 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 404 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 405 <ulink 406 url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/"><quote>Contributors 407 to FreeBSD</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its 408 mirrors.</para> 409 410 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 411 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 412 simply would not have been possible.</para> 413 </sect1> 414</article> 415 416<!-- 417 Local Variables: 418 mode: sgml 419 sgml-indent-data: t 420 sgml-omittag: nil 421 sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 422 End: 423--> 424