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<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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  <info>
    <title>&os; &release.current; README</title>

    <author><orgname>The &os; Project</orgname></author>

    <pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>

    <copyright>
      <year>2016</year>
      <holder role="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">The &os; Documentation
        Project</holder>
    </copyright>

    <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
      &tm-attrib.freebsd;
      &tm-attrib.intel;
      &tm-attrib.opengroup;
      &tm-attrib.sparc;
      &tm-attrib.general;
    </legalnotice>

    <abstract>
      <para>This document gives a brief introduction to &os;
        &release.current;.  It includes some information on how to
        obtain &os;, a listing of various ways to contact the &os;
        Project, and pointers to some other sources of
        information.</para>
    </abstract>
  </info>

  <sect1 xml:id="intro">
    <title>Introduction</title>

    <para>This distribution is a &release.type; of &os;
      &release.current;, the latest point along the &release.branch;
      branch.</para>

    <sect2>
      <title>About &os;</title>

      <para>&os; is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for
        AMD64 and Intel EM64T based PC hardware (&arch.amd64;), Intel,
        AMD, Cyrix or NexGen <quote>x86</quote> based PC hardware
        (&arch.i386;), Intel Itanium Processor based computers
        (&arch.ia64;), NEC PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles
        (&arch.pc98;), and &ultrasparc; machines (&arch.sparc64;).
        Versions for the &arm; (&arch.arm;), &mips; (&arch.mips;), and
        &powerpc; (&arch.powerpc;) architectures are currently under
        development as well.  &os; works with a wide variety of
        peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything
        from software development to games to Internet Service
        Provision.</para>

      <para>This release of &os; contains everything you need to run
        such a system, including full source code for the kernel and
        all utilities in the base distribution.  With the source
        distribution installed, you can literally recompile the entire
        system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for
        students, researchers, or users who simply want to see how it
        all works.</para>

      <para>A large collection of third-party ported software (the
        <quote>Ports Collection</quote>) is also provided to make it
        easy to obtain and install all your favorite traditional
        &unix; utilities for &os;.  Each <quote>port</quote> consists
        of a set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build, and install
        a piece of software, with a single command.  Over
        &os.numports; ports, from editors to programming languages to
        graphical applications, make &os; a powerful and comprehensive
        operating environment that extends far beyond what's provided
        by many commercial versions of &unix;.  Most ports are also
        available as pre-compiled <quote>packages</quote>, which can
        be quickly installed from the installation program.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Target Audience</title>

      <para releasetype="current">This &release.type; is aimed
        primarily at early adopters and various other users who want
        to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;.  While
        the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each
        &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very
        much a work-in-progress.</para>

      <para releasetype="current">The basic requirements for using
        this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an
        understanding of the ongoing development process of &os;
        &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para>

      <para releasetype="current">For those more interested in doing
        business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os;
        technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;)
        are frequently more appropriate.  Releases undergo a period of
        testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high
        reliability and dependability.</para>

      <para releasetype="snapshot">This &release.type; is aimed
        primarily at early adopters and various other users who want
        to get involved with the ongoing development of &os;.  While
        the &os; development team tries its best to ensure that each
        &release.type; works as advertised, &release.branch; is very
        much a work-in-progress.</para>

      <para releasetype="snapshot">The basic requirements for using
        this &release.type; are technical proficiency with &os; and an
        understanding of the ongoing development process of &os;
        &release.branch; (as discussed on the &a.stable;).</para>

      <para releasetype="snapshot">For those more interested in doing
        business with &os; than in experimenting with new &os;
        technology, formal releases (such as &release.prev.stable;)
        are frequently more appropriate.  Releases undergo a period of
        testing and quality assurance checking to ensure high
        reliability and dependability.</para>

      <para releasetype="release">This &release.type; of &os; is
        suitable for all users.  It has undergone a period of testing
        and quality assurance checking to ensure the highest
        reliability and dependability.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 xml:id="obtain">
    <title>Obtaining &os;</title>

    <para>&os; may be obtained in a variety of ways.  This section
      focuses on those ways that are primarily useful for obtaining a
      complete &os; distribution, rather than updating an existing
      installation.</para>

    <sect2>
      <title>CDROM and DVD</title>

      <para>&os; -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD
        from several publishers.  This is frequently the most
        convenient way to obtain &os; for new installations, as it
        provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if
        necessary.  Some distributions include some of the optional,
        precompiled <quote>packages</quote> from the &os; Ports
        Collection, or other extra material.</para>

      <para>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the
        project are listed in the <link
          xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors.html"><quote>Obtaining
            &os;</quote></link> appendix to the Handbook.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>FTP</title>

      <para>You can use FTP to retrieve &os; and any or all of its
        optional packages from <uri
          xlink:href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</uri>,
        which is the official &os; release site, or any of its
        <quote>mirrors</quote>.</para>

      <para>Lists of locations that mirror &os; can be found in the
        <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/mirrors-ftp.html">FTP
        Sites</link> section of the Handbook.
        Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to
        download the distribution is highly recommended.</para>

      <para>Additional mirror sites are always welcome.  Contact
        <email>freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</email> for more details on
        becoming an official mirror site.  You can also find useful
        information for mirror sites at the <link
          xlink:href="&url.articles.hubs;/">Mirroring &os;</link>
        article.</para>

      <para>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to
        create a CDROM of a &os; release.  They usually also contain
        floppy disk images (for applicable platforms), as well as the
        files necessary to do an installation over the network.
        Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for
        the most current release.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 xml:id="contacting">
    <title>Contacting the &os; Project</title>

    <sect2>
      <title>Email and Mailing Lists</title>

      <para>For any questions or general technical support issues,
        please send mail to the &a.questions;.</para>

      <para>If tracking the &release.branch; development efforts, you
        <emphasis>must</emphasis> join the &a.stable;, in order to
        keep abreast of recent developments and changes that may
        affect the way you use and maintain the system.</para>

      <para>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the &os; Project is
        always happy to have extra hands willing to help&mdash;there
        are already far more desired enhancements than there is time
        to implement them.  To contact the developers on technical
        matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to the
        &a.hackers;.</para>

      <para>Please note that these mailing lists can experience
        <emphasis>significant</emphasis> amounts of traffic.  If you
        have slow or expensive mail access, or are only interested in
        keeping up with major &os; events, you may find it
        preferable to subscribe instead to the &a.announce;.</para>

      <para>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone
        wishing to do so.  Visit the <link
          xlink:href="&url.base;/mailman/listinfo"> &os; Mailman Info
          Page</link>.  This will give you more information on joining
        the various lists, accessing archives, etc.  There are
        a number of mailing lists targeted at special interest groups
        not mentioned here; more information can be obtained either
        from the Mailman pages or the <link
          xlink:href="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list">mailing
          lists section</link> of the &os; Web site.</para>

      <important>
        <para>Do <emphasis>not</emphasis> send email to the lists
          asking to be subscribed.  Use the Mailman interface
          instead.</para>
      </important>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Submitting Problem Reports</title>

      <para>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are
        always valued&mdash;please do not hesitate to report any
        problems you may find.  Bug reports with attached fixes are of
        course even more welcome.</para>

      <para>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine
        with Internet connectivity is to use the
        <application>Bugzilla</application> bug tracker.
        <quote>Problem Reports</quote> (PRs) submitted in this way
        will be filed and their progress tracked; the &os; developers
        will do their best to respond to all reported bugs as soon as
        possible.  <link
          xlink:href="https://bugs.FreeBSD.org/search/">A list of all
          active PRs</link> is available on the &os; Web site; this
        list is useful to see what potential problems other users have
        encountered.</para>

      <para>Note that &man.send-pr.1; is deprecated.</para>

      <para>For more information, <link
          xlink:href="&url.articles.problem-reports;/"><quote>Writing
            &os; Problem Reports</quote></link>, available on the &os;
        Web site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and
        submitting effective problem reports.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 xml:id="seealso">
    <title>Further Reading</title>

    <para>There are many sources of information about &os;; some are
      included with this distribution, while others are available
      on-line or in print versions.</para>

    <sect2 xml:id="release-docs">
      <title>Release Documentation</title>

      <para>A number of other files provide more specific information
        about this &release.type; distribution.  These files are
        provided in various formats.  Most distributions will include
        both ASCII text (<filename>.TXT</filename>) and HTML
        (<filename>.HTM</filename>) renditions.  Some distributions
        may also include other formats such as Portable Document
        Format (<filename>.PDF</filename>).</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para><filename>README.TXT</filename>: This file, which
            gives some general information about &os; as well as
            some cursory notes about obtaining a
            distribution.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><filename>RELNOTES.TXT</filename>: The release
            notes, showing what's new and different in &os;
            &release.current; compared to the previous release (&os;
            &release.prev;).</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><filename>HARDWARE.TXT</filename>: The hardware
            compatibility list, showing devices with which &os; has
            been tested and is known to work.</para>
        </listitem>

        <listitem>
          <para><filename>ERRATA.TXT</filename>: Release errata.
            Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in
            this file, which is principally applicable to releases
            (as opposed to snapshots).  It is important to consult
            this file before installing a release of &os;, as it
            contains the latest information on problems which have
            been found and fixed since the release was
            created.</para>
        </listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>On platforms that support &man.bsdinstall.8; (currently
        &arch.amd64;, &arch.i386;, &arch.ia64;, &arch.pc98;, and
        &arch.sparc64;), these documents are generally available via
        the Documentation menu during installation.  Once the system
        is installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the
        &man.bsdinstall.8; utility.</para>

      <note>
        <para>It is extremely important to read the errata for any
          given release before installing it, to learn about any
          <quote>late-breaking news</quote> or post-release problems.
          The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right
          next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but
          other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be
          consulted as the <quote>current errata</quote> for this
          release.  These other copies of the errata are located at
          <uri
            xlink:href="&url.base;/releases/">&url.base;/releases/</uri>
          (as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this
          location).</para>
      </note>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Manual Pages</title>

      <para>As with almost all &unix; like operating systems, &os;
        comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the
        &man.man.1; command or through the <link
          xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi">hypertext
          manual pages gateway</link> on the &os; Web site.  In
        general, the manual pages provide information on the different
        commands and APIs available to the &os; user.</para>

      <para>In some cases, manual pages are written to give
        information on particular topics.  Notable examples of such
        manual pages are &man.tuning.7; (a guide to performance
        tuning), &man.security.7; (an introduction to &os; security),
        and &man.style.9; (a style guide to kernel coding).</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Books and Articles</title>

      <para>Two highly-useful collections of &os;-related information,
        maintained by the &os; Project, are the &os; Handbook and &os;
        FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document).  On-line versions
        of the <link
          xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/">Handbook</link> and <link
          xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/">FAQ</link> are always
        available from the <link
          xlink:href="&url.base;/docs.html">&os; Documentation
          page</link> or its mirrors.  If you install the
        <filename>doc</filename> distribution set, you can use a Web
        browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally.  In particular,
        note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to
        installing &os;.</para>

      <para>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by
        the &os; Project, cover more-specialized, &os;-related topics.
        This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use
        of the mailing lists, to dual-booting &os; with other
        operating systems, to guidelines for new committers.  Like the
        Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the &os;
        Documentation Page or in the <filename>doc</filename>
        distribution set.</para>

      <para>A listing of other books and documents about &os; can be
        found in the <link
          xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/bibliography.html">bibliography</link>
        of the &os; Handbook.  Because of &os;'s strong &unix;
        heritage, many other articles and books written for &unix;
        systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed
        in the bibliography.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 xml:id="acknowledgements">
    <title>Acknowledgments</title>

    <para>&os; represents the cumulative work of many hundreds, if not
      thousands, of individuals from around the world who have worked
      countless hours to bring about this &release.type;.  For
      a complete list of &os; developers and contributors, please see
      <link
        xlink:href="&url.articles.contributors;/"><quote>Contributors
          to &os;</quote></link> on the &os; Web site or any of its
      mirrors.</para>

    <para>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of &os; users
      and testers all over the world, without whom this &release.type;
      simply would not have been possible.</para>
  </sect1>
</article>