1250746Sgabor<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> 2257801Sgabor<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V5.0-Based Extension//EN" 3318467Sgjb "../../../share/xml/freebsd50.dtd" [ 4250746Sgabor<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN" "release.ent"> 5250746Sgabor %release; 676082Sbmah]> 7318467Sgjb<!-- 8257801Sgabor Local Variables: 9257801Sgabor mode: sgml 10257801Sgabor sgml-indent-data: t 11257801Sgabor sgml-omittag: nil 12257801Sgabor sgml-always-quote-attributes: t 13257801Sgabor End: 14257801Sgabor--> 15318467Sgjb<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" 16335496Sgjb xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" 17335496Sgjb xml:id="top" 18335496Sgjb version="5.0"> 1976082Sbmah 20318467Sgjb <info> 21318467Sgjb <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 22318467Sgjb 23257801Sgabor <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author> 2481327Sbmah 2582666Sbmah <pubdate>$FreeBSD: stable/11/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 335496 2018-06-21 17:05:31Z gjb $</pubdate> 2681327Sbmah 2782666Sbmah <copyright> 2882666Sbmah <year>2000</year> 2982666Sbmah <year>2001</year> 3088820Sbmah <year>2002</year> 31108829Sbmah <year>2003</year> 32130964Sden <year>2004</year> 33145265Shrs <year>2005</year> 34165592Sbmah <year>2006</year> 35171891Sbmah <year>2007</year> 36179456Shrs <year>2008</year> 37258432Srodrigc <year>2009</year> 38258432Srodrigc <year>2010</year> 39258432Srodrigc <year>2011</year> 40258432Srodrigc <year>2012</year> 41258432Srodrigc <year>2013</year> 42265924Sskreuzer <year>2014</year> 43276583Sgjb <year>2015</year> 44318467Sgjb <year>2016</year> 45318467Sgjb <year>2017</year> 46333727Sgjb <year>2018</year> 47318467Sgjb <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation 48318467Sgjb Project</holder> 4982666Sbmah </copyright> 50119884Ssimon 51257801Sgabor <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 52119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.freebsd; 53119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.intel; 54119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.opengroup; 55119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.sparc; 56119884Ssimon &tm-attrib.general; 57119884Ssimon </legalnotice> 5881327Sbmah 59318467Sgjb <abstract> 60318467Sgjb <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 61318467Sgjb &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 62318467Sgjb obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 63318467Sgjb Project, and pointers to some other sources of 64318467Sgjb information.</para> 65318467Sgjb </abstract> 66257801Sgabor </info> 6781327Sbmah 68257801Sgabor <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 6982666Sbmah <title>Introduction</title> 7081327Sbmah 71318467Sgjb <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; 72318467Sgjb &release.current;, the latest point along the &release.branch; 73318467Sgjb branch.</para> 7481327Sbmah 75335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="intro-about"> 7682666Sbmah <title>About &os;</title> 7781327Sbmah 7882666Sbmah <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 79171891Sbmah AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 80318467Sgjb Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC 81318467Sgjb hardware (&arch.i386;), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and 82318467Sgjb compatibles (&arch.pc98;), and &ultrasparc; machines 83318467Sgjb (&arch.sparc64;). Versions for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; 84318467Sgjb (&arch.mips;), and &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures 85318467Sgjb are currently under development as well. &os; works with 86318467Sgjb a wide variety of peripherals and configurations and can be 87318467Sgjb used for everything from software development to games to 88318467Sgjb Internet Service Provision.</para> 8981327Sbmah 9082666Sbmah <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 9182666Sbmah such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 9282666Sbmah all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 9382666Sbmah distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 9482666Sbmah system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 9582666Sbmah students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 9682666Sbmah all works.</para> 9781327Sbmah 9882666Sbmah <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 9982666Sbmah <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 100318467Sgjb easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional 101318467Sgjb &unix; utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists 102318467Sgjb of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install 103318467Sgjb a piece of software, with a single command. Over 104318467Sgjb &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming languages to 105318467Sgjb graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive 106318467Sgjb operating environment that extends far beyond what's provided 107318467Sgjb by many commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also 108318467Sgjb available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can 109318467Sgjb be quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 11082666Sbmah </sect2> 11182666Sbmah 112335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="intro-audience"> 11382666Sbmah <title>Target Audience</title> 11482666Sbmah 115318467Sgjb <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed 116318467Sgjb primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 117318467Sgjb to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 118318467Sgjb the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 119318467Sgjb &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 120318467Sgjb much a work-in-progress.</para> 121134116Shrs 122318467Sgjb <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using 123318467Sgjb this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 124318467Sgjb understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 125318467Sgjb &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 126134116Shrs 127318467Sgjb <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing 128318467Sgjb business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 129318467Sgjb technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 130318467Sgjb are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 131318467Sgjb testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 132318467Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 133134116Shrs 134318467Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed 135318467Sgjb primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 136318467Sgjb to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 137318467Sgjb the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 138318467Sgjb &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 139318467Sgjb much a work-in-progress.</para> 14081327Sbmah 141318467Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using 142318467Sgjb this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 143318467Sgjb understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 144318467Sgjb &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.current;).</para> 14582666Sbmah 146318467Sgjb <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing 147318467Sgjb business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 148318467Sgjb technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 149318467Sgjb are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 150318467Sgjb testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 151318467Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 15282666Sbmah 153318467Sgjb <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is 154318467Sgjb suitable for all users. It has undergone a period of testing 155318467Sgjb and quality assurance checking to ensure the highest 156318467Sgjb reliability and dependability.</para> 15782666Sbmah </sect2> 15882666Sbmah </sect1> 15981339Sbmah 160257801Sgabor <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 16182666Sbmah <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 16281327Sbmah 16382666Sbmah <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 16488959Sbmah focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 16582666Sbmah complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 16682666Sbmah installation.</para> 16781327Sbmah 168335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="obtain-cd-dvd"> 16982666Sbmah <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 17081327Sbmah 17182666Sbmah <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 17282666Sbmah from several publishers. This is frequently the most 17382666Sbmah convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 17482666Sbmah provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 17582666Sbmah necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 17682666Sbmah precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 177171891Sbmah Collection, or other extra material.</para> 17881327Sbmah 17982666Sbmah <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 180318467Sgjb project are listed in the <link 181318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 182318467Sgjb &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 18382666Sbmah </sect2> 18481327Sbmah 185335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="obtain-https"> 186318469Sgjb <title>HTTPS</title> 187318469Sgjb 188318469Sgjb <para>&os; releases may be downloaded via 189318469Sgjb <acronym>HTTPS</acronym> from <uri 190318469Sgjb xlink:href="https://download.FreeBSD.org/">https://download.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, 191318469Sgjb which is the official &os; release site.</para> 192318469Sgjb </sect2> 193318469Sgjb 194335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="obtain-ftp"> 19582666Sbmah <title>FTP</title> 19681327Sbmah 19782666Sbmah <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 198318467Sgjb optional packages from <uri 199318467Sgjb xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, 200318469Sgjb or any of its <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 20181327Sbmah 20282666Sbmah <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 203257801Sgabor <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 204257801Sgabor Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 20582666Sbmah Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 20682666Sbmah download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 20781327Sbmah 20882666Sbmah <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 20982666Sbmah <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 21091249Skeramida becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 211318467Sgjb information for mirror sites at the <link 212318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring &os;</link> 213318467Sgjb article.</para> 21481327Sbmah 215171891Sbmah <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 216171891Sbmah create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 217171891Sbmah floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 218171891Sbmah files necessary to do an installation over the network. 219171891Sbmah Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 220171891Sbmah the most current release.</para> 22182666Sbmah </sect2> 22282666Sbmah </sect1> 22381327Sbmah 224257801Sgabor <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 22582666Sbmah <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 22681327Sbmah 227335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="contacting-email"> 22882666Sbmah <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 22981327Sbmah 23082666Sbmah <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 23182666Sbmah please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 23281327Sbmah 233318468Sgjb <para>If you are tracking the &release.branch; development 234318467Sgjb efforts, you <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, 235318467Sgjb in order to keep abreast of recent developments and changes 236318467Sgjb that may affect the way you use and maintain the 237318467Sgjb system.</para> 23881327Sbmah 239318467Sgjb <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; Project is 240318467Sgjb always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there 241318467Sgjb are already far more desired enhancements than there is time 242318467Sgjb to implement them. To contact the developers on technical 243318467Sgjb matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to the 244318467Sgjb &a.hackers;.</para> 24581327Sbmah 24682666Sbmah <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 24788959Sbmah <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 24888959Sbmah have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 24988959Sbmah keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 25082666Sbmah preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 25181327Sbmah 25282666Sbmah <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 253318467Sgjb wishing to do so. Visit the <link 254318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo">&os; Mailman Info 255318467Sgjb Page</link>. This will give you more information on joining 256318467Sgjb the various lists, accessing archives, etc. There are 257318467Sgjb a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups 258318467Sgjb not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 259318467Sgjb from the Mailman pages or the <link 260318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 261318467Sgjb lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 26281327Sbmah 26382666Sbmah <important> 26482666Sbmah <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 265114787Sbmah asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 26682666Sbmah instead.</para> 26782666Sbmah </important> 26882666Sbmah </sect2> 26981327Sbmah 270335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="contacting-problem-reports"> 27182666Sbmah <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 27281327Sbmah 27382666Sbmah <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 27488959Sbmah always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 27582666Sbmah problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 27682666Sbmah course even more welcome.</para> 27781327Sbmah 27882666Sbmah <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 279276582Sgjb with Internet connectivity is to use the 280276582Sgjb <application>Bugzilla</application> bug tracker. 28182666Sbmah <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 28282666Sbmah will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 28382666Sbmah will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 284276582Sgjb possible. <link 285276582Sgjb xlink:href="https://bugs.FreeBSD.org/search/">A list of all 286276582Sgjb active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; this 287276582Sgjb list is useful to see what potential problems other users have 288276582Sgjb encountered.</para> 28981327Sbmah 290276582Sgjb <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; is deprecated.</para> 29181327Sbmah 292276582Sgjb <para>For more information, <link 293276582Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 294276582Sgjb &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; 295276582Sgjb Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and 296276582Sgjb submitting effective problem reports.</para> 29782666Sbmah </sect2> 29882666Sbmah </sect1> 29981339Sbmah 300257801Sgabor <sect1 xml:id="seealso"> 30182666Sbmah <title>Further Reading</title> 30281339Sbmah 30388959Sbmah <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 30488959Sbmah included with this distribution, while others are available 30588959Sbmah on-line or in print versions.</para> 30688959Sbmah 307257801Sgabor <sect2 xml:id="release-docs"> 30882666Sbmah <title>Release Documentation</title> 30981339Sbmah 31082666Sbmah <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 31182666Sbmah about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 31282666Sbmah provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 31382666Sbmah both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 31482666Sbmah (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 315318467Sgjb may also include other formats such as Portable Document 316318467Sgjb Format (<filename>.PDF</filename>).</para> 31781339Sbmah 318318467Sgjb <itemizedlist> 319318467Sgjb <listitem> 320318467Sgjb <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 321318467Sgjb gives some general information about &os; as well as 322318467Sgjb some cursory notes about obtaining a 323318467Sgjb distribution.</para> 324318467Sgjb </listitem> 32581339Sbmah 326318467Sgjb <listitem> 327318467Sgjb <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 328318467Sgjb notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 329318467Sgjb &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 330318467Sgjb &release.prev;).</para> 331318467Sgjb </listitem> 33281339Sbmah 333318467Sgjb <listitem> 334318467Sgjb <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 335318467Sgjb compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 336318467Sgjb been tested and is known to work.</para> 337318467Sgjb </listitem> 33881339Sbmah 339318467Sgjb <listitem> 340318467Sgjb <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 341318467Sgjb Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 342318467Sgjb this file, which is principally applicable to releases 343318467Sgjb (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 344318467Sgjb this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 345318467Sgjb contains the latest information on problems which have 346318467Sgjb been found and fixed since the release was 347318467Sgjb created.</para> 348318467Sgjb </listitem> 349318467Sgjb </itemizedlist> 35081339Sbmah 351258570Srodrigc <para>On platforms that support &man.bsdinstall.8; (currently 352318467Sgjb &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), 353318467Sgjb these documents are generally available via the Documentation 354318467Sgjb menu during installation. Once the system is installed, you 355318467Sgjb can revisit this menu by re-running the &man.bsdinstall.8; 356318467Sgjb utility.</para> 35781339Sbmah 35882666Sbmah <note> 35982666Sbmah <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 36082666Sbmah given release before installing it, to learn about any 36182666Sbmah <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 36282666Sbmah The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 36382666Sbmah next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 36482666Sbmah other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 36582666Sbmah consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 36682666Sbmah release. These other copies of the errata are located at 367318467Sgjb <uri 368318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> 369318467Sgjb (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 37082666Sbmah location).</para> 37182666Sbmah </note> 37282666Sbmah </sect2> 37383425Sbmah 374335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="manual-pages"> 37588959Sbmah <title>Manual Pages</title> 37688959Sbmah 377318467Sgjb <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; 378318467Sgjb comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 379318467Sgjb &man.man.1; command or through the <link 380318467Sgjb xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext 381318467Sgjb manual pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In 382318467Sgjb general, the manual pages provide information on the different 383318467Sgjb commands and APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 38488959Sbmah 385107569Sbmah <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 38688959Sbmah information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 387318467Sgjb manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance 388318467Sgjb tuning), &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), 389318467Sgjb and &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 39088959Sbmah </sect2> 39188959Sbmah 392335496Sgjb <sect2 xml:id="books-articles"> 39383425Sbmah <title>Books and Articles</title> 39483425Sbmah 39583425Sbmah <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 39683425Sbmah maintained by the &os; Project, 397318467Sgjb are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions 398318467Sgjb document). On-line versions of the <link 399318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> and <link 400318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> are always 401318467Sgjb available from the <link 402318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 403318467Sgjb page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 40483425Sbmah <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 405171891Sbmah browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 406171891Sbmah note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 407171891Sbmah installing &os;.</para> 40883425Sbmah 40984484Sbmah <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 410318467Sgjb the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 411318467Sgjb This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 412318467Sgjb of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 413318467Sgjb operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 414318467Sgjb Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 415318467Sgjb Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 416318467Sgjb distribution set.</para> 41784484Sbmah 41884484Sbmah <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 419318467Sgjb found in the <link 420318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 421318467Sgjb of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; 422318467Sgjb heritage, many other articles and books written for &unix; 423318467Sgjb systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed 424318467Sgjb in the bibliography.</para> 42583425Sbmah </sect2> 42682666Sbmah </sect1> 42781327Sbmah 428257801Sgabor <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements"> 42982666Sbmah <title>Acknowledgments</title> 43081327Sbmah 43182666Sbmah <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 43282666Sbmah thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 433318467Sgjb countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For 434318467Sgjb a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 435318467Sgjb <link 436318467Sgjb xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 437318467Sgjb to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 43882666Sbmah mirrors.</para> 43981327Sbmah 44082666Sbmah <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 44182666Sbmah and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 44282666Sbmah simply would not have been possible.</para> 44382666Sbmah </sect1> 44476082Sbmah</article> 445