1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
|
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
%articles.ent;
<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN">
%release;
]>
<article>
<articleinfo>
<title>&os; &release.current; README</title>
<corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor>
<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
<copyright>
<year>2000</year>
<year>2001</year>
<year>2002</year>
<year>2003</year>
<year>2004</year>
<year>2005</year>
<year>2006</year>
<holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
&tm-attrib.freebsd;
&tm-attrib.intel;
&tm-attrib.opengroup;
&tm-attrib.sparc;
&tm-attrib.general;
</legalnotice>
</articleinfo>
<abstract>
<para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os;
&release.current;. It includes some information on how to
obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os;
Project, and pointers to some other sources of
information.</para>
</abstract>
<sect1 id="intro">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the
latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para>
<sect2>
<title>About &os;</title>
<para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for
DEC/Compaq/HP Alpha/AXP computers (alpha),
AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (amd64),
Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (i386),
Intel Itanium Processor based computers (ia64),
NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (pc98),
and &ultrasparc; machines (sparc64). Versions
for the &powerpc; (powerpc), and &mips; (mips)
architectures are currently under
development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of
peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything
from software development to games to Internet Service
Provision.</para>
<para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run
such a system, including full source code for the kernel and
all utilities in the base distribution. With the source
distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire
system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for
students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it
all works.</para>
<para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the
<quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it
easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix;
utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a
set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a
piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports;
ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical
applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating
environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many
commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as
pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly
installed from the installation program.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Target Audience</title>
<![ %release.type.current; [
<para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters
and various other users who want to get involved with the
ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team
tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as
advertised, &release.branch; is very much a
work-in-progress.</para>
<para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are
technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the
ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as
discussed on the &a.current;).</para>
<para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than
in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases
(such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate.
Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance
checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para>
]]>
<![ %release.type.snapshot; [
<para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters
and various other users who want to get involved with the
ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team
tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as
advertised, &release.branch; is very much a
work-in-progress.</para>
<para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are
technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the
ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as
discussed on the &a.current;).</para>
<para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than
in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases
(such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate.
Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance
checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para>
]]>
<![ %release.type.release; [
<para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It
has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance
checking to ensure the highest reliability and
dependability.</para>
]]>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="obtain">
<title>Obtaining &os;</title>
<para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section
focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a
complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing
installation.</para>
<sect2>
<title>CDROM and DVD</title>
<para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD
from several publishers. This is frequently the most
convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it
provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if
necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional,
precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports
Collection.</para>
<para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the
project are listed in the <ulink
url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining
&os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>FTP</title>
<para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its
optional packages from <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official
&os; release site, or any of its
<quote>mirrors</quote>.</para>
<para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the
<ulink
url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP
Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook, or on the <ulink
url="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink> Web pages.
Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to
download the distribution is highly recommended.</para>
<para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact
<email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on
becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful
information for mirror sites at the <ulink
URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring
&os;</ulink> article.</para>
<para>Mirrors generally contain the floppy disk images necessary
to begin an installation, as well as the distribution files
needed for the install process itself. Many mirrors also
contain the ISO images necessary to create a CDROM of
a &os; release.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="contacting">
<title>Contacting the &os; Project</title>
<sect2>
<title>Email and Mailing Lists</title>
<para>For any questions or general technical support issues,
please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para>
<para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you
<emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to
keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may
affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para>
<para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os;
Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than
there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on
technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to
the &a.hackers;.</para>
<para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience
<emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you
have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in
keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it
preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para>
<para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone
wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo">
&os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more
information on joining the various lists, accessing archives,
etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special
interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be
obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink
url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing
lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para>
<important>
<para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists
asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface
instead.</para>
</important>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Submitting Problem Reports</title>
<para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are
always valued—please do not hesitate to report any
problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of
course even more welcome.</para>
<para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine
with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1;
command.
<quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way
will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers
will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as
possible. <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list
of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site;
this list is useful to see what potential problems other users
have encountered.</para>
<para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that
should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using
this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you
are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you
can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para>
<para>For more information, <ulink
url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing
&os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web
site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting
effective problem reports.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="seealso">
<title>Further Reading</title>
<para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are
included with this distribution, while others are available
on-line or in print versions.</para>
<sect2 id="release-docs">
<title>Release Documentation</title>
<para>A number of other files provide more specific information
about this &release.type; distribution. These files are
provided in various formats. Most distributions will include
both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML
(<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions
may also include other formats such as PostScript
(<filename>.PS</filename>) or Portable Document Format
(<filename>.PDF</filename>).
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which
gives some general information about &os; as well as
some cursory notes about obtaining a
distribution.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release
notes, showing what's new and different in &os;
&release.current; compared to the previous release (&os;
&release.prev;).</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware
compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has
been tested and is known to work.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>: Installation
instructions for installing &os; from its distribution
media.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata.
Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in
this file, which is principally applicable to releases
(as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult
this file before installing a release of &os;, as it
contains the latest information on problems which have
been found and fixed since the release was
created.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>There are various versions of
<filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename>, each containing information
specific to a particular hardware architecture.
The architecture
to which each document applies will be listed in that
document's title.</para>
</note>
</para>
<para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently
alpha, &i386;, ia64, pc98, and &sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the
Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is
installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the
&man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para>
<note>
<para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any
given release before installing it, to learn about any
<quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems.
The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right
next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but
other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be
consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this
release. These other copies of the errata are located at
<ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as
well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this
location).</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Manual Pages</title>
<para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes
with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the
&man.man.1; command or through the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual
pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the
manual pages provide information on the different commands and
APIs available to the &os; user.</para>
<para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give
information on particular topics. Notable examples of such
manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning),
&man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and
&man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Books and Articles</title>
<para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information,
maintained by the &os; Project,
are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink
url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink>
and <ulink
url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink>
are always available from the <ulink
url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation
page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the
<filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web
browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.</para>
<para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by
the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics.
This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use
of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other
operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the
Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os;
Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename>
distribution set.</para>
<para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be
found in the <ulink
url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink>
of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage,
many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are
applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the
bibliography.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="acknowledgements">
<title>Acknowledgments</title>
<para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not
thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked
countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a
complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see
<ulink
url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors
to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its
mirrors.</para>
<para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users
and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type;
simply would not have been possible.</para>
</sect1>
</article>
<!--
Local Variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-indent-data: t
sgml-omittag: nil
sgml-always-quote-attributes: t
End:
-->
|