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438 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
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<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
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%articles.ent;
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<!ENTITY % release PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES Release Specification//EN">
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%release;
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]>
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<article>
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<articleinfo>
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<title>&os; &release.current; README</title>
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<corpauthor>The &os; Project</corpauthor>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<copyright>
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<year>2000</year>
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<year>2001</year>
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<year>2002</year>
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<year>2003</year>
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<year>2004</year>
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<year>2005</year>
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<year>2006</year>
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<year>2007</year>
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<year>2008</year>
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<holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation Project</holder>
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</copyright>
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<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
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&tm-attrib.freebsd;
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&tm-attrib.intel;
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&tm-attrib.opengroup;
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&tm-attrib.sparc;
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&tm-attrib.general;
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</legalnotice>
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</articleinfo>
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<abstract>
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<para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os;
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&release.current;. It includes some information on how to
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obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os;
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Project, and pointers to some other sources of
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information.</para>
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</abstract>
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<sect1 id="intro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os; &release.current;, the
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latest point along the &release.branch; branch.</para>
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<sect2>
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<title>About &os;</title>
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<para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for
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AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;),
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Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware (&arch.i386;),
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Intel Itanium Processor based computers (&arch.ia64;),
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NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (&arch.pc98;),
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and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;). Versions
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for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and
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&powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under
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development as well. &os; works with a wide variety of
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peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything
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from software development to games to Internet Service
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Provision.</para>
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<para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run
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such a system, including full source code for the kernel and
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all utilities in the base distribution. With the source
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distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire
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system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for
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students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it
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all works.</para>
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<para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the
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<quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it
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easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional &unix;
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utilities for &os;. Each <quote>port</quote> consists of a
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set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install a
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piece of software, with a single command. Over &os.numports;
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ports, from editors to programming languages to graphical
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applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive operating
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environment that extends far beyond what's provided by many
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commercial versions of &unix;. Most ports are also available as
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pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can be quickly
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installed from the installation program.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Target Audience</title>
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<![ %release.type.current; [
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<para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters
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and various other users who want to get involved with the
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ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team
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tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as
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advertised, &release.branch; is very much a
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work-in-progress.</para>
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<para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are
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technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the
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ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as
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discussed on the &a.current;).</para>
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<para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than
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in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases
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(such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate.
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Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance
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checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para>
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]]>
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<![ %release.type.snapshot; [
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<para>This &release.type; is aimed primarily at early adopters
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and various other users who want to get involved with the
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ongoing development of &os;. While the &os; development team
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tries its best to ensure that each &release.type; works as
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advertised, &release.branch; is very much a
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work-in-progress.</para>
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<para>The basic requirements for using this &release.type; are
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technical proficiency with &os; and an understanding of the
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ongoing development process of &os; &release.branch; (as
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discussed on the &a.current;).</para>
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<para>For those more interested in doing business with &os; than
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in experimenting with new &os; technology, formal releases
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(such as &release.prev.stable;) are frequently more appropriate.
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Releases undergo a period of testing and quality assurance
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checking to ensure high reliability and dependability.</para>
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]]>
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<![ %release.type.release; [
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<para>This &release.type; of &os; is suitable for all users. It
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has undergone a period of testing and quality assurance
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checking to ensure the highest reliability and
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dependability.</para>
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]]>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="obtain">
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<title>Obtaining &os;</title>
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<para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section
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focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a
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complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing
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installation.</para>
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<sect2>
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<title>CDROM and DVD</title>
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<para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD
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from several publishers. This is frequently the most
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convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it
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provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if
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necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional,
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precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports
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Collection, or other extra material.</para>
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<para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the
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project are listed in the <ulink
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url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining
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&os;</quote></ulink> appendix to the Handbook.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>FTP</title>
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<para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its
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optional packages from <ulink
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url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/"></ulink>, which is the official
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&os; release site, or any of its
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<quote>mirrors</quote>.</para>
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<para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the
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<ulink
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url="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP
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Sites</ulink> section of the Handbook.
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Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to
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download the distribution is highly recommended.</para>
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<para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact
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<email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on
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becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful
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information for mirror sites at the <ulink
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URL="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring
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&os;</ulink> article.</para>
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<para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to
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create a CDROM of a &os; release. They usually also contain
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floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the
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files necessary to do an installation over the network.
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Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for
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the most current release.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="contacting">
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<title>Contacting the &os; Project</title>
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<sect2>
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<title>Email and Mailing Lists</title>
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<para>For any questions or general technical support issues,
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please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para>
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<para>If you're tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you
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<emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.current;, in order to
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keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may
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affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para>
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<para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os;
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Project is always happy to have extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than
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there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on
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technical matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to
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the &a.hackers;.</para>
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<para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience
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<emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic. If you
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have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in
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keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it
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preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para>
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<para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone
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wishing to do so. Visit the <ulink url="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo">
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&os; Mailman Info Page</ulink>. This will give you more
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information on joining the various lists, accessing archives,
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etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at special
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interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be
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obtained either from the Mailman pages or the <ulink
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url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing
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lists section</ulink> of the &os; Web site.</para>
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<important>
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<para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists
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asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface
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instead.</para>
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</important>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Submitting Problem Reports</title>
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<para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are
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always valued—please do not hesitate to report any
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problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes are of
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course even more welcome.</para>
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<para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine
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with Internet mail connectivity is to use the &man.send-pr.1;
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command.
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<quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way
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will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers
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will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as
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possible. <ulink
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url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi">A list
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of all active PRs</ulink> is available on the &os; Web site;
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this list is useful to see what potential problems other users
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have encountered.</para>
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<para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; itself is a shell script that
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should be easy to move even onto a non-&os; system. Using
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this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you
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are unable to use &man.send-pr.1; to submit a bug report, you
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can try to send it to the &a.bugs;.</para>
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<para>For more information, <ulink
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url="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing
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&os; Problem Reports</quote></ulink>, available on the &os; Web
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site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting
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effective problem reports.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="seealso">
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<title>Further Reading</title>
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<para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are
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included with this distribution, while others are available
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on-line or in print versions.</para>
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<sect2 id="release-docs">
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<title>Release Documentation</title>
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<para>A number of other files provide more specific information
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about this &release.type; distribution. These files are
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provided in various formats. Most distributions will include
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both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML
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(<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions. Some distributions
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may also include other formats such as Portable Document Format
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(<filename>.PDF</filename>).
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which
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gives some general information about &os; as well as
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some cursory notes about obtaining a
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distribution.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release
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notes, showing what's new and different in &os;
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&release.current; compared to the previous release (&os;
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&release.prev;).</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware
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compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has
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been tested and is known to work.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata.
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Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in
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this file, which is principally applicable to releases
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(as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult
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this file before installing a release of &os;, as it
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contains the latest information on problems which have
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been found and fixed since the release was
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created.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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<para>On platforms that support &man.sysinstall.8; (currently
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&arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via the
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Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is
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installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the
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&man.sysinstall.8; utility.</para>
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<note>
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<para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any
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given release before installing it, to learn about any
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<quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems.
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The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right
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next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but
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other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be
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consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this
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release. These other copies of the errata are located at
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<ulink url="&url.base;/releases/"></ulink> (as
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well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this
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location).</para>
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</note>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Manual Pages</title>
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<para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os; comes
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with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the
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&man.man.1; command or through the <ulink
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url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext manual
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pages gateway</ulink> on the &os; Web site. In general, the
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manual pages provide information on the different commands and
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APIs available to the &os; user.</para>
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<para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give
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information on particular topics. Notable examples of such
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manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance tuning),
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&man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security), and
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&man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2>
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<title>Books and Articles</title>
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<para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information,
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maintained by the &os; Project,
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are the &os; Handbook and &os; FAQ (Frequently Asked
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Questions document). On-line versions of the <ulink
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url="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</ulink>
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and <ulink
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url="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</ulink>
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are always available from the <ulink
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url="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation
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page</ulink> or its mirrors. If you install the
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<filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web
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browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular,
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note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to
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installing &os;.</para>
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<para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by
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the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics.
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This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use
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of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other
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operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the
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Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os;
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Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename>
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distribution set.</para>
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<para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be
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found in the <ulink
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url="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</ulink>
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of the &os; Handbook. Because of &os;'s strong &unix; heritage,
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many other articles and books written for &unix; systems are
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applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the
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bibliography.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="acknowledgements">
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<title>Acknowledgments</title>
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<para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not
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thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked
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countless hours to bring about this &release.type;. For a
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complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see
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<ulink
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url="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors
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to &os;</quote></ulink> on the &os; Web site or any of its
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mirrors.</para>
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<para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users
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and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type;
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simply would not have been possible.</para>
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</sect1>
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</article>
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