article.xml revision 260657
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: releng/10.0/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 260657 2014-01-14 23:58:50Z hrs $</pubdate> 22 23 <copyright> 24 <year>2014</year> 25 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder> 26 </copyright> 27 28 <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 29 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 30 &tm-attrib.intel; 31 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 32 &tm-attrib.sparc; 33 &tm-attrib.general; 34 </legalnotice> 35 36 <abstract> 37 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 38 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 39 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 40 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 41 information.</para> 42 </abstract> 43 </info> 44 45 <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 46 <title>Introduction</title> 47 48 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the 49 latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para> 50 51 <sect2> 52 <title>About &os;</title> 53 54 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 55 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), 56 Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;), 57 Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;), 58 NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;), 59 and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions 60 for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 61 &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 62 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 63 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 64 from software development to games to Internet Service 65 Provision.</para> 66 67 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 68 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 69 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 70 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 71 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 72 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 73 all works.</para> 74 75 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 76 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 77 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix; 78 utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a 79 set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a 80 piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports; 81 ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical 82 applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating 83 environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many 84 commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as 85 pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly 86 installed from the installation program.</para> 87 </sect2> 88 89 <sect2> 90 <title>Target Audience</title> 91 92 <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 93 and various other users who want to get involved with the 94 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 95 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 96 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 97 work-in-progress.</para> 98 99 <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 100 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 101 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 102 discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 103 104 <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 105 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 106 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 107 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 108 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 109 110 <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters 111 and various other users who want to get involved with the 112 ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team 113 tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as 114 advertised, &release.branch; is very much a 115 work-in-progress.</para> 116 117 <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are 118 technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the 119 ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as 120 discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 121 122 <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing business with &os; than 123 in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases 124 (such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate. 125 Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance 126 checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para> 127 128 <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It 129 has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance 130 checking to ensure the highest reliability and 131 dependability.</para> 132 </sect2> 133 </sect1> 134 135 <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 136 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 137 138 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 139 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 140 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 141 installation.</para> 142 143 <sect2> 144 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 145 146 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 147 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 148 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 149 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 150 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 151 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 152 Collection, or other extra material.</para> 153 154 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 155 project are listed in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 156 &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 157 </sect2> 158 159 <sect2> 160 <title>FTP</title> 161 162 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 163 optional packages from <uri xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, which is the official 164 &os; release site, or any of its 165 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 166 167 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 168 <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 169 Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 170 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 171 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 172 173 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 174 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 175 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 176 information for mirror sites at the <link xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring 177 &os;</link> article.</para> 178 179 <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 180 create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 181 floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 182 files necessary to do an installation over the network. 183 Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 184 the most current release.</para> 185 </sect2> 186 </sect1> 187 188 <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 189 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 190 191 <sect2> 192 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 193 194 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 195 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 196 197 <para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 198 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.stable;, in order to 199 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 200 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 201 202 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; 203 Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than 204 there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 205 technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 206 the &a.hackers;.</para> 207 208 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 209 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 210 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 211 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 212 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 213 214 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 215 wishing to do so. Visit the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> 216 &os; Mailman Info Page</link>. This will give you more 217 information on joining the various lists, accessing archives, 218 etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special 219 interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 220 obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 221 lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 222 223 <important> 224 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 225 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 226 instead.</para> 227 </important> 228 </sect2> 229 230 <sect2> 231 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 232 233 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 234 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 235 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 236 course even more welcome.</para> 237 238 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 239 with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1; 240 command. 241 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 242 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 243 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 244 possible. <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list 245 of all active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; 246 this list is useful to see what potential problems other users 247 have encountered.</para> 248 249 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that 250 should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using 251 this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 252 are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you 253 can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para> 254 255 <para>For more information, <link xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 256 &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; Web 257 site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting 258 effective problem reports.</para> 259 </sect2> 260 </sect1> 261 262 <sect1 xml:id="seealso"> 263 <title>Further Reading</title> 264 265 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 266 included with this distribution, while others are available 267 on-line or in print versions.</para> 268 269 <sect2 xml:id="release-docs"> 270 <title>Release Documentation</title> 271 272 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 273 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 274 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 275 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 276 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 277 may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format 278 (<filename>.PDF</filename>). 279 280 <itemizedlist> 281 <listitem> 282 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 283 gives some general information about &os; as well as 284 some cursory notes about obtaining a 285 distribution.</para> 286 </listitem> 287 288 <listitem> 289 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 290 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 291 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 292 &release.prev;).</para> 293 </listitem> 294 295 <listitem> 296 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 297 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 298 been tested and is known to work.</para> 299 </listitem> 300 301 <listitem> 302 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 303 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 304 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 305 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 306 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 307 contains the latest information on problems which have 308 been found and fixed since the release was 309 created.</para> 310 </listitem> 311 </itemizedlist> 312 </para> 313 314 <para>On platforms that support &man.bsdinstall.8; (currently 315 &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the 316 Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is 317 installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 318 &man.bsdinstall.8; utility.</para> 319 320 <note> 321 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 322 given release before installing it, to learn about any 323 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 324 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 325 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 326 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 327 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 328 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 329 <uri xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri> (as 330 well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 331 location).</para> 332 </note> 333 </sect2> 334 335 <sect2> 336 <title>Manual Pages</title> 337 338 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes 339 with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 340 &man.man.1; command or through the <link xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual 341 pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In general, the 342 manual pages provide information on the different commands and 343 APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 344 345 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 346 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 347 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning), 348 &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and 349 &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 350 </sect2> 351 352 <sect2> 353 <title>Books and Articles</title> 354 355 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 356 maintained by the &os; Project, 357 are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked 358 Questions document). On-line versions of the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> 359 and <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> 360 are always available from the <link xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 361 page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 362 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 363 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 364 note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 365 installing &os;.</para> 366 367 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 368 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 369 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 370 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 371 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 372 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 373 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 374 distribution set.</para> 375 376 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 377 found in the <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 378 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage, 379 many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are 380 applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the 381 bibliography.</para> 382 </sect2> 383 </sect1> 384 385 <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements"> 386 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 387 388 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 389 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 390 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a 391 complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 392 <link xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 393 to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 394 mirrors.</para> 395 396 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 397 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 398 simply would not have been possible.</para> 399 </sect1> 400</article> 401