Distribution Format
A typical &os; distribution directory looks something like
this (exact details may vary depending on version, architecture,
and other factors):
ERRATA.HTM README.TXT compat1x dict kernel
ERRATA.TXT RELNOTES.HTM compat20 doc manpages
HARDWARE.HTM RELNOTES.TXT compat21 docbook.css packages
HARDWARE.TXT base compat22 filename.txt ports
INSTALL.HTM boot compat3x floppies proflibs
INSTALL.TXT catpages compat4x games src
README.HTM cdrom.inf crypto info tools
These same files are contained in the first CDROM of a
multi-disk set, but they are laid out slightly differently on the
disk. On most architectures, the installation CDROM also contains
a live filesystem
in addition to the distribution
files. The live filesystem is useful when repairing or
troubleshooting an existing &os; installation (see for how to use this).
The floppies directory will be of
particular interest to users who are unable to boot from the CDROM
media (but are able to read the CDROM by other means). It is easy
to generate a set of 1.44MB boot
floppies from the floppies directory (see
for instructions on how to
do this) and use these to start an installation from CDROM, FTP, or
NFS. The rest of the
data needed during the installation will be obtained automatically
based on your selections. If you've never installed &os; before,
you also want to read the entirety of this document (the
installation instructions) file.
If you're trying to do some other type of installation or are
merely curious about how a distribution is organized, what follows
is a more thorough description of some of these items in more detail:
The *.TXT and
*.HTM files contain
documentation (for example, this document is contained in both
INSTALL.TXT and
INSTALL.HTM) and should be read
before starting an installation. The
*.TXT files are plain text, while the
*.HTM files are HTML files that can be
read by almost any Web browser. Some distributions may
contain documentation in other formats as well, such as PDF or
PostScript.
docbook.css is a Cascading Style
Sheet (CSS) file used by some Web browsers for formatting the
HTML documentation.
The base,
catpages,
crypto,
dict,
doc,
games,
info,
manpages,
proflibs, and
src directories contain the primary distribution
components of &os; itself and are split into smaller files
for easy packing onto floppies (should that be
necessary).
The compat1x,
compat20,
compat21,
compat22,
compat3x, and
compat4x
directories contain distributions for compatibility with older
releases and are distributed as single gzip'd tar files - they
can be installed during release time or later by running their
install.sh scripts.
The floppies/ subdirectory contains the floppy
installation images; further information on using them can be
found in .
The packages and ports directories contain the &os;
Packages and Ports Collections. Packages may be installed from
the packages directory by running the command:
&prompt.root;/stand/sysinstall configPackages
Packages can also be installed by feeding individual
filenames in packages/ to the &man.pkg.add.1; command.
The Ports Collection may be installed like any other
distribution and requires about 190MB unpacked. More
information on the ports collection may be obtained from
http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/ or locally from
/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 only for user
convenience.
A typical distribution directory (for example, the info distribution) looks like this internally:
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 and does not need to be
copied with the rest of the distribution files. The info.a* files
are split, gzip'd tar files, the contents of which can be viewed by
doing:
&prompt.root; cat info.a* | tar tvzf -
During installation, they are automatically concatenated and
extracted by the installation procedure.
The info.inf file is also necessary since it 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
distributions onto floppies, the .inf file must occupy the first
floppy of each distribution set!
The info.mtree file is another non-essential file which is
provided for user reference. It contains the MD5 signatures of the
unpacked distribution files and can be later
used with the &man.mtree.8; program to verify the installation
permissions and checksums against any possible modifications to the
file. When used with the base 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 want to install the distribution after installation
time. To install the info distribution from CDROM after a system
was installed, for example, you'd do:
&prompt.root; cd /cdrom/info
&prompt.root; sh install.sh