4 This section contains the contents of the old LAYOUT.TXT file.
7 <title>Distribution Format</title>
9 <para>A typical &os; distribution directory looks something like
10 this (exact details may vary depending on version, architecture,
11 and other factors):</para>
13 <screen>ERRATA.HTM README.TXT compat1x dict kernel
14 ERRATA.TXT RELNOTES.HTM compat20 doc manpages
15 HARDWARE.HTM RELNOTES.TXT compat21 docbook.css packages
16 HARDWARE.TXT base compat22 filename.txt ports
17 INSTALL.HTM boot compat3x floppies proflibs
18 INSTALL.TXT catpages compat4x games src
19 README.HTM cdrom.inf crypto info tools</screen>
21 <para>These same files are contained in the first CDROM of a
22 multi-disk set, but they are laid out slightly differently on the
23 disk. On most architectures, the installation CDROM also contains
24 a <quote>live filesystem</quote> in addition to the distribution
25 files. The live filesystem is useful when repairing or
26 troubleshooting an existing &os; installation (see <xref
27 linkend="trouble"> for how to use this).</para>
29 <para>The <filename>floppies</filename> directory will be of
30 particular interest to users who are unable to boot from the CDROM
31 media (but are able to read the CDROM by other means). It is easy
32 to generate a set of 1.44MB boot
33 floppies from the <filename>floppies</filename> directory (see
34 <xref linkend="floppies"> for instructions on how to
35 do this) and use these to start an installation from CDROM, FTP, or
37 data needed during the installation will be obtained automatically
38 based on your selections. If you've never installed &os; before,
39 you also want to read the entirety of this document (the
40 installation instructions) file.</para>
42 <para>If you're trying to do some other type of installation or are
43 merely curious about how a distribution is organized, what follows
44 is a more thorough description of some of these items in more detail:</para>
47 <para>The <filename>*.TXT</filename> and
48 <filename>*.HTM</filename> files contain
49 documentation (for example, this document is contained in both
50 <filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename> and
51 <filename>INSTALL.HTM</filename>) and should be read
52 before starting an installation. The
53 <filename>*.TXT</filename> files are plain text, while the
54 <filename>*.HTM</filename> files are HTML files that can be
55 read by almost any Web browser. Some distributions may
56 contain documentation in other formats as well, such as PDF or
60 <para><filename>docbook.css</filename> is a Cascading Style
61 Sheet (CSS) file used by some Web browsers for formatting the
62 HTML documentation.</para>
65 <para>The <filename>base</filename>,
66 <filename>catpages</filename>,
67 <filename>crypto</filename>,
68 <filename>dict</filename>,
69 <filename>doc</filename>,
70 <filename>games</filename>,
71 <filename>info</filename>,
72 <filename>manpages</filename>,
73 <filename>proflibs</filename>, and
74 <filename>src</filename> directories contain the primary distribution
75 components of &os; itself and are split into smaller files
76 for easy packing onto floppies (should that be
80 <para>The <filename>compat1x</filename>,
81 <filename>compat20</filename>,
82 <filename>compat21</filename>,
83 <filename>compat22</filename>,
84 <filename>compat3x</filename>, and
85 <filename>compat4x</filename>
86 directories contain distributions for compatibility with older
87 releases and are distributed as single gzip'd tar files - they
88 can be installed during release time or later by running their
89 <filename>install.sh</filename> scripts.</para>
92 <para>The <filename>floppies/</filename> subdirectory contains the floppy
93 installation images; further information on using them can be
94 found in <xref linkend="floppies">.</para>
97 <para>The <filename>packages</filename> and <filename>ports</filename> directories contain the &os;
98 Packages and Ports Collections. Packages may be installed from
99 the packages directory by running the command:</para>
101 <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>sysinstall configPackages</userinput></screen>
103 <para>Packages can also be installed by feeding individual
104 filenames in <filename>packages</filename>/ to the &man.pkg.add.1; command.</para>
106 <para>The Ports Collection may be installed like any other
107 distribution and requires about 190MB unpacked. More
108 information on the ports collection may be obtained from
109 <ulink url="&url.base;/ports/">http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/</ulink> or locally from
110 <filename>/usr/share/doc/handbook</filename> if you've installed the <filename>doc</filename>
114 <para>Last of all, the <filename>tools</filename> directory contains various DOS
115 tools for discovering disk geometries, installing boot managers
116 and the like. It is purely optional and provided only for user
121 <para>A typical distribution directory (for example, the <filename>info</filename> distribution) looks like this internally:</para>
123 <screen>CHECKSUM.MD5 info.ab info.ad info.inf install.sh
124 info.aa info.ac info.ae info.mtree</screen>
126 <para>The <filename>CHECKSUM.MD5</filename> file contains MD5 signatures for each file,
127 should data corruption be suspected, and is purely for reference. It
128 is not used by the actual installation and does not need to be
129 copied with the rest of the distribution files. The <filename>info.a*</filename> files
130 are split, gzip'd tar files, the contents of which can be viewed by
133 <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cat info.a* | tar tvzf -</userinput></screen>
135 <para>During installation, they are automatically concatenated and
136 extracted by the installation procedure.</para>
138 <para>The <filename>info.inf</filename> file is also necessary since it is read by the
139 installation program in order to figure out how many pieces to look
140 for when fetching and concatenating the distribution. When putting
141 distributions onto floppies, the <filename>.inf</filename> file <emphasis>must</emphasis> occupy the first
142 floppy of each distribution set!</para>
144 <para>The <filename>info.mtree</filename> file is another non-essential file which is
145 provided for user reference. It contains the MD5 signatures of the
146 <emphasis>unpacked</emphasis> distribution files and can be later
147 used with the &man.mtree.8; program to verify the installation
148 permissions and checksums against any possible modifications to the
149 file. When used with the <filename>base</filename> distribution,
150 this can be an excellent way of detecting trojan horse attacks on
153 <para>Finally, the <filename>install.sh</filename> file is for use
154 by those who want to install the distribution after installation
155 time. To install the info distribution from CDROM after a system
156 was installed, for example, you'd do:</para>
158 <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /cdrom/info</userinput>
159 &prompt.root; <userinput>sh install.sh</userinput></screen>