diff --git a/release/ABOUT.TXT b/release/ABOUT.TXT new file mode 100644 index 00000000000..d83f52d4396 --- /dev/null +++ b/release/ABOUT.TXT @@ -0,0 +1,83 @@ +This file attempts to describe what you're seeing here. Here is a typical +distribution tree: + +HARDWARE.TXT bin dict manpages tools +INSTALL.TXT compat1x des doc packages +README.TXT compat20 floppies ports +RELNOTES.TXT compat21 games proflibs +XF8632 info src + +The *.TXT files are, obviously, documentation. The XF8632 directory contains +the XFree86 project's 3.2 release and consists of a series of gzip'd tar +files which contain each component of the XFree86 distribution. + +The compat1x, compat20 and compat21 directories contain compatibility +distributions for older releases and are also distributed as single gzip'd +tar files - they can be installed during release time or later by running +their `install.sh' scripts. + +The bin, dict, des, doc, games, info, manpages, proflibs and src directories +contain the primary distribution components of FreeBSD itself and are split +into smaller files for ease of distribution on floppy (should such be +necessary). A typical distribution (we'll use the info distribution +as an example) looks like this: + +CHECKSUM.MD5 info.ab info.ad info.inf install.sh +info.aa info.ac info.ae info.mtree + +The CHECKSUM.MD5 file contains MD5 signatures for each file, should +data corruption be suspected, and is purely for reference - it is not +used by the actual installation. The info.a* files are split, gzip'd +tar files, the contents of which could be viewed by doing: + + cat info.a* | tar tvzf - + +They are automatically concatenated and extracted during the installation +procedure, assuming that the info distribution was selected in the +distributions menu. + +The info.inf file is also a necessary component and is read by the +installation program in order to figure out how many pieces to look for +when fetching and concatenating the distribution. When putting a distribution +onto floppies, this file must occupy the first floppy of the set. + +The info.mtree file is another non-essential file which is provided purely +for user reference. It contains the MD5 signatures of the *unpacked* +distribution and can be used later as fodder for the mtree(1) program +in verifying the permissions and checksums of the distribution against +whatever is installed on your system. When used with the bin distribution, +this can be an excellent way of detecting trojan horse attacks on your +system. + +Finally, the install.sh file is for use by those who'd like to install the +distribution *after* installation time, e.g. some time after the system +is already installed and working. To install the info distribution from +CDROM after your system was installed, for example, you'd do: + + cd /cdrom/info + sh install.sh + +And that's all there is to it! This also works for the other distributions, +including the compat* ones. + + +The floppies subdirectory contains the floppy installation images. +The floppies/README.TXT file should be referred to for more information +about them. + +The packages and ports directories contain the FreeBSD packages and +ports collections, respectively. The packages may be installed using +the package menu in /stand/sysinstall (the utility which runs when you +first install FreeBSD) or individually with the pkg_add(1) command. + +The ports tree should be copied to your hard disk or linked to with +the lndir command, which comes with the XFree86 distribution. More +information on it can be obtained from http://www.freebsd.org/ports +or locally from file:/usr/share/doc/handbook if you've installed +the doc distribution. + +Last of all, the tools directory contains various DOS tools for +discovering disk geometries, installing boot managers and the like. +It is purely optional and provided merely for user convenience. + + Jordan