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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" 16 xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"> 17 <info> 18 <title>&os; &release.current; README</title> 19 20 <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author> 21 22 <pubdate>$FreeBSD: releng/10.1/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml 273083 2014-10-14 12:49:49Z gjb $</pubdate> 23 24 <copyright> 25 <year>2000</year> 26 <year>2001</year> 27 <year>2002</year> 28 <year>2003</year> 29 <year>2004</year> 30 <year>2005</year> 31 <year>2006</year> 32 <year>2007</year> 33 <year>2008</year> 34 <year>2009</year> 35 <year>2010</year> 36 <year>2011</year> 37 <year>2012</year> 38 <year>2013</year> 39 <year>2014</year> 40 <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation 41 Project</holder> 42 </copyright> 43 44 <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks"> 45 &tm-attrib.freebsd; 46 &tm-attrib.intel; 47 &tm-attrib.opengroup; 48 &tm-attrib.sparc; 49 &tm-attrib.general; 50 </legalnotice> 51 52 <abstract> 53 <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os; 54 &release.current;. It includes some information on how to 55 obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os; 56 Project, and pointers to some other sources of 57 information.</para> 58 </abstract> 59 </info> 60 61 <sect1 xml:id="intro"> 62 <title>Introduction</title> 63 64 <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; 65 &release.current;, the latest point along the &release.branch; 66 branch.</para> 67 68 <sect2> 69 <title>About &os;</title> 70 71 <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 72 AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), Intel, 73 AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware 74 (&arch.i386;), Intel Itanium Processor based computers 75 (&arch.ia64;), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles 76 (&arch.pc98;), and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). 77 Versions for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and 78 &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under 79 development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of 80 peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 81 from software development to games to Internet Service 82 Provision.</para> 83 84 <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run 85 such a system, including full source code for the kernel and 86 all utilities in the base distribution. With the source 87 distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire 88 system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 89 students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 90 all works.</para> 91 92 <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 93 <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it 94 easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional 95 &unix; utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists 96 of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install 97 a piece of software, with a single command. Over 98 &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming languages to 99 graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive 100 operating environment that extends far beyond what's provided 101 by many commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also 102 available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can 103 be quickly installed from the installation program.</para> 104 </sect2> 105 106 <sect2> 107 <title>Target Audience</title> 108 109 <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed 110 primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 111 to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 112 the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 113 &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 114 much a work-in-progress.</para> 115 116 <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using 117 this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 118 understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 119 &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 120 121 <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing 122 business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 123 technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 124 are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 125 testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 126 reliability and dependability.</para> 127 128 <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed 129 primarily at early adopters and various other users who want 130 to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;. While 131 the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each 132 &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very 133 much a work-in-progress.</para> 134 135 <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using 136 this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an 137 understanding of the ongoing development process of &os; 138 &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para> 139 140 <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing 141 business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os; 142 technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;) 143 are frequently more appropriate. Releases undergo a period of 144 testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high 145 reliability and dependability.</para> 146 147 <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is 148 suitable for all users. It has undergone a period of testing 149 and quality assurance checking to ensure the highest 150 reliability and dependability.</para> 151 </sect2> 152 </sect1> 153 154 <sect1 xml:id="obtain"> 155 <title>Obtaining &os;</title> 156 157 <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section 158 focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a 159 complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing 160 installation.</para> 161 162 <sect2> 163 <title>CDROM and DVD</title> 164 165 <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 166 from several publishers. This is frequently the most 167 convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it 168 provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if 169 necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 170 precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports 171 Collection, or other extra material.</para> 172 173 <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 174 project are listed in the <link 175 xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining 176 &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para> 177 </sect2> 178 179 <sect2> 180 <title>FTP</title> 181 182 <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its 183 optional packages from <uri 184 xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>, 185 which is the official &os; release site, or any of its 186 <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para> 187 188 <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the 189 <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP 190 Sites</link> section of the Handbook. 191 Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 192 download the distribution is highly recommended.</para> 193 194 <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 195 <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on 196 becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful 197 information for mirror sites at the <link 198 xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring &os;</link> 199 article.</para> 200 201 <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 202 create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain 203 floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the 204 files necessary to do an installation over the network. 205 Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 206 the most current release.</para> 207 </sect2> 208 </sect1> 209 210 <sect1 xml:id="contacting"> 211 <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title> 212 213 <sect2> 214 <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title> 215 216 <para>For any questions or general technical support issues, 217 please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para> 218 219 <para>If tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you 220 <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.stable;, in order to 221 keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may 222 affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para> 223 224 <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; Project is 225 always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there 226 are already far more desired enhancements than there is time 227 to implement them. To contact the developers on technical 228 matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to the 229 &a.hackers;.</para> 230 231 <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 232 <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you 233 have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in 234 keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it 235 preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para> 236 237 <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 238 wishing to do so. Visit the <link 239 xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> &os; Mailman Info 240 Page</link>. This will give you more information on joining 241 the various lists, accessing archives, etc. There are 242 a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups 243 not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either 244 from the Mailman pages or the <link 245 xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing 246 lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para> 247 248 <important> 249 <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists 250 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 251 instead.</para> 252 </important> 253 </sect2> 254 255 <sect2> 256 <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title> 257 258 <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 259 always valued—please do not hesitate to report any 260 problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of 261 course even more welcome.</para> 262 263 <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 264 with Internet connectivity is to use the 265 <application>Bugzilla</application> bug tracker. 266 <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way 267 will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers 268 will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as 269 possible. <link 270 xlink:href="https://bugs.FreeBSD.org/search/">A list of all 271 active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; this 272 list is useful to see what potential problems other users have 273 encountered.</para> 274 275 <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; is deprecated.</para> 276 277 <para>For more information, <link 278 xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing 279 &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os; 280 Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and 281 submitting effective problem reports.</para> 282 </sect2> 283 </sect1> 284 285 <sect1 xml:id="seealso"> 286 <title>Further Reading</title> 287 288 <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are 289 included with this distribution, while others are available 290 on-line or in print versions.</para> 291 292 <sect2 xml:id="release-docs"> 293 <title>Release Documentation</title> 294 295 <para>A number of other files provide more specific information 296 about this &release.type; distribution. These files are 297 provided in various formats. Most distributions will include 298 both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML 299 (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions 300 may also include other formats such as Portable Document 301 Format (<filename>.PDF</filename>).</para> 302 303 <itemizedlist> 304 <listitem> 305 <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which 306 gives some general information about &os; as well as 307 some cursory notes about obtaining a 308 distribution.</para> 309 </listitem> 310 311 <listitem> 312 <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release 313 notes, showing what's new and different in &os; 314 &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os; 315 &release.prev;).</para> 316 </listitem> 317 318 <listitem> 319 <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware 320 compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has 321 been tested and is known to work.</para> 322 </listitem> 323 324 <listitem> 325 <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata. 326 Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in 327 this file, which is principally applicable to releases 328 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 329 this file before installing a release of &os;, as it 330 contains the latest information on problems which have 331 been found and fixed since the release was 332 created.</para> 333 </listitem> 334 </itemizedlist> 335 336 <para>On platforms that support &man.bsdinstall.8; (currently 337 &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and 338 &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via 339 the Documentation menu during installation. Once the system 340 is installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the 341 &man.bsdinstall.8; utility.</para> 342 343 <note> 344 <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any 345 given release before installing it, to learn about any 346 <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems. 347 The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right 348 next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but 349 other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be 350 consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this 351 release. These other copies of the errata are located at 352 the 353 <uri 354 xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&os; &release.current; 355 page</uri> 356 (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this 357 location).</para> 358 </note> 359 </sect2> 360 361 <sect2> 362 <title>Manual Pages</title> 363 364 <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; 365 comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 366 &man.man.1; command or through the <link 367 xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext 368 manual pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site. In 369 general, the manual pages provide information on the different 370 commands and APIs available to the &os; user.</para> 371 372 <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 373 information on particular topics. Notable examples of such 374 manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance 375 tuning), &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), 376 and &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para> 377 </sect2> 378 379 <sect2> 380 <title>Books and Articles</title> 381 382 <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information, 383 maintained by the &os; Project, are the &os; Handbook and &os; 384 FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions 385 of the <link 386 xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> and <link 387 xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> are always 388 available from the <link 389 xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation 390 page</link> or its mirrors. If you install the 391 <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web 392 browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular, 393 note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to 394 installing &os;.</para> 395 396 <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by 397 the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics. 398 This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use 399 of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other 400 operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the 401 Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os; 402 Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename> 403 distribution set.</para> 404 405 <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be 406 found in the <link 407 xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link> 408 of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; 409 heritage, many other articles and books written for &unix; 410 systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed 411 in the bibliography.</para> 412 </sect2> 413 </sect1> 414 415 <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements"> 416 <title>Acknowledgments</title> 417 418 <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not 419 thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked 420 countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For 421 a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see 422 <link 423 xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors 424 to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its 425 mirrors.</para> 426 427 <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users 428 and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type; 429 simply would not have been possible.</para> 430 </sect1> 431</article> 432