The rapid pace of FreeBSD progress makes print media impractical as a
means of following the latest developments. Electronic resources are
the best, if not often the only, way stay informed of the latest advances.
Since FreeBSD is a volunteer effort, the user community itself also
generally serves as a `technical support department' of sorts, with
electronic mail and USENET news being the most effective way of reaching
that community.
The most important points of contact with the FreeBSD
user community are outlined below. If you are aware of other
resources not mentioned here, please send them to the &a.doc
so that they may also be included.
Mailing lists
Though many of the FreeBSD development members read USENET, we cannot
always guarantee that we will get to your questions in a timely fashion
(or at all) if you post them only to one of the comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.*
groups. By addressing your questions to the appropriate mailing list
you will reach both us and a concentrated FreeBSD audience, invariably
assuring a better (or at least faster) response.
The charters for the various lists are given at the bottom of this
document. Please read the charter before joining or sending
mail to any list. Most of our list subscribers now receive many hundreds
of FreeBSD related messages every day, and by setting down charters
and rules for proper use we are striving to keep the signal-to-noise ratio
of the lists high. To do less would see the mailing lists ultimately fail
as an effective communications medium for the project.
Archives are kept for all of the mailing lists and can be searched
using the . The keyword searchable archive
offers an excellent way of finding answers to frequently asked
questions and should be consulted before posting a question.
List summary
General lists: The following are general lists which
anyone is free (and encouraged) to join:
List Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-advocacy FreeBSD Evangelism
freebsd-announce Important events and project milestones
freebsd-bugs Bug reports
freebsd-chat Non-technical items related to the FreeBSD community
freebsd-current Discussion concerning the use of FreeBSD-current
freebsd-isp Issues for Internet Service Providers using FreeBSD
freebsd-jobs FreeBSD employment and consulting opportunities
freebsd-newbies New FreeBSD users activities and discussion
freebsd-questions User questions and technical support
freebsd-stable Discussion concerning the use of FreeBSD-stable
Technical lists: The following lists are for technical discussion.
You should read the charter for each list carefully before joining or
sending mail to one as there are firm guidelines for their use and content.
List Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-afs Porting AFS to FreeBSD
freebsd-alpha Porting FreeBSD to the Alpha
freebsd-doc Creating FreeBSD related documents
freebsd-database Discussing database use and developement under FreeBSD
freebsd-emulation Emulation of other systems such as Linux/DOS/Windows
freebsd-fs Filesystems
freebsd-hackers General technical discussion
freebsd-hardware General discussion of hardware for running FreeBSD
freebsd-isdn ISDN developers
freebsd-java Java developers and people porting JDKs to FreeBSD
freebsd-mobile Discussions about mobile computing
freebsd-mozilla Porting mozilla to FreeBSD
freebsd-net Networking discussion and TCP/IP source code
freebsd-platforms Concerning ports to non-Intel architecture platforms
freebsd-ports Discussion of the ports collection
freebsd-scsi The SCSI subsystem
freebsd-security Security issues
freebsd-small Using FreeBSD in embedded applications
freebsd-smp Design discussions for [A]Symmetric MultiProcessing
freebsd-sparc Porting FreeBSD to Sparc systems.
freebsd-tokenring Support Token Ring in FreeBSD
Limited lists: The following lists require approval from
to join,
though anyone is free to send messages to them which fall within the
scope of their charters. It is also a good idea establish a presence
in the technical lists before asking to join one of these limited lists.
List Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-admin Administrative issues
freebsd-arch Architecture and design discussions
freebsd-core FreeBSD core team
freebsd-hubs People running mirror sites (infrastructural support)
freebsd-install Installation development
freebsd-security-notifications Security notifications
freebsd-user-groups User group coordination
CVS lists: The following lists are for people interested in
seeing the log messages for changes to various areas of the source tree.
They are Read-Only lists and should not have mail sent to them.
List name Source area Area Description (source for)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
cvs-all /usr/src All changes to the tree (superset)
How to subscribe
All mailing lists live on FreeBSD.ORG, so to post to a
given list you simply mail to listname@FreeBSD.ORG. It
will then be redistributed to mailing list members world-wide.
To subscribe to a list, send mail to &a.majordomo and include
subscribe []
In the body of your message. For example, to subscribe yourself to
freebsd-announce, you'd do:
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
subscribe freebsd-announce
^D
If you want to subscribe yourself under a different name, or submit a
subscription request for a local mailing list (note: this is more efficient
if you have several interested parties at one site, and highly appreciated by
us!), you would do something like:
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
subscribe freebsd-announce local-announce@somesite.com
^D
Finally, it is also possible to unsubscribe yourself from a list, get a
list of other list members or see the list of mailing lists again by
sending other types of control messages to majordomo. For a complete
list of available commands, do this:
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
help
^D
Again, we would like to request that you keep discussion in the technical mailing
lists on a technical track. If you are only interested in the "high points"
then it is suggested that you join freebsd-announce, which is intended only
for infrequent traffic.
List charters
AllFreeBSD mailing lists have certain basic rules
which must be adhered to by anyone using them. Failure to comply
with these guidelines will result in two (2) written warnings from the
FreeBSD ,
after which, on a third offense, the poster will removed from all
FreeBSD mailing lists and filtered from further posting to them.
We regret that such rules and measures are necessary at all, but
today's Internet is a pretty harsh environment, it would seem, and
many fail to appreciate just how fragile some of its mechanisms are.
Rules of the road:
The topic of any posting should adhere to the basic charter of the list
it is posted to, e.g. if the list is about technical issues then your
posting should contain technical discussion. Ongoing irrelevant chatter
or flaming only detracts from the value of the mailing list for everyone
on it and will not be tolerated. For free-form discussion on no
particular topic, the mailing list is freely available and should
be used instead.No posting should be made to more than 2 mailing lists, and only
to 2 when a clear and obvious need to post to both lists exists.
For most lists, there is already a great deal of subscriber overlap
and except for the most esoteric mixes (say "-stable & -scsi"), there
really is no reason to post to more than one list at a time.
If a message is sent to you in such a way that multiple mailing lists
appear on the Cc line then the cc line should also be trimmed before
sending it out again.
You are still responsible for your own cross-postings, no
matter who the originator might have been.Personal attacks and profanity (in the context of an argument) are
not allowed, and that includes users and developers alike. Gross
breaches of netiquette, like excerpting or reposting private mail
when permission to do so was not and would not be forthcoming,
are frowned upon but not specifically enforced. However,
there are also very few cases where such content would fit within the
charter of a list and it would therefore probably rate a warning
(or ban) on that basis alone.Advertising of non-FreeBSD related products or services is
strictly prohibited and will result in an immediate ban if it
is clear that the offender is advertising by spam.
Individual list charters:
Andrew File System
This list is for discussion on porting and using AFS from CMU/Transarc
Administrative issues
This list is purely for discussion of freebsd.org related issues
and to report problems or abuse of project resources. It is a closed
list, though anyone may report a problem (with our systems!) to it.
Important events / milestones
This is the mailing list for people interested only in occasional
announcements of significant FreeBSD events. This includes
announcements about snapshots and other releases. It contains
announcements of new FreeBSD capabilities. It may contain calls
for volunteers etc. This is a low volume, strictly moderated mailing list.
Architecture and design discussions
This is a moderated list for discussion of FreeBSD architecture.
Messages will mostly be kept technical in nature, with (rare)
exceptions for other messages the moderator deems need to reach all
the subscribers of the list. Examples of suitable topics:
How to re-vamp the build-system to have several customized builds
running at the same time
What needs to be fixed with VFS to make Heidemann layers work
How do we change the device driver interface to be able to use the
same drivers cleanly on many buses and architectures?
Example of a non-suitable topic:
How do I write a network driver?
The moderator reserves the right to do minor editing (spell-checking,
grammar correction, trimming) of messages that are posted to the list.
The volume of the list will be kept low, which may include having to
delay topics until an active discussion has been resolved.
Bug reports
This is the mailing list for reporting bugs in FreeBSD
Whenever possible, bugs should be submitted using the "send-pr(1)"
command or the to it.
Non technical items related to the
FreeBSD community
This list contains the overflow from the other lists about
non-technical, social information. It includes discussion about
whether Jordan looks like a toon ferret or not, whether or not to
type in capitals, who is drinking too much coffee, where the best
beer is brewed, who is brewing beer in their basement, and so on.
Occasional announcements of important events (such as upcoming
parties, weddings, births, new jobs, etc) can be made to the
technical lists, but the follow ups should be directed to this
-chat list.
FreeBSD core team
This is an internal mailing list for use by the core members.
Messages can be sent to it when a serious FreeBSD-related matter
requires arbitration or high-level scrutiny.
Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-current This is the mailing list for users
of freebsd-current. It includes warnings about new features
coming out in -current that will affect the users, and
instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -current.
Anyone running "current" must subscribe to this list.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-current This is the digest version of the
freebsd-current mailing list. The digest consists of all
messages sent to freebsd-current bundled together and mailed out
as a single message. The average digest size is about 40kB.
This list is Read-Only and should not be posted to.
The FreeBSD Documentation project
This mailing list is for the discussion of issues and projects related
to the creation of documentation for FreeBSD. The members of this mailing
list are collectively referred to as 'The FreeBSD Documentation project'.
It is an open list; feel free to join and contribute!
Filesystems
Discussions concerning FreeBSD filesystems.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
ISDN Communications
This is the mailing list for people discussing the development
of ISDN support for FreeBSD.
Java Development
This is the mailing list for people discussing the development of
significant Java applications for FreeBSD and the porting and maintenance
of JDKs.
Technical discussions
This is a forum for technical discussions related to FreeBSD. This
is the primary technical mailing list. It
is for individuals actively working on FreeBSD, to bring up problems
or discuss alternative solutions. Individuals interested in
following the technical discussion are also welcome.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Technical
discussions This is the digest version of the
freebsd-hackers mailing list. The digest consists of all
messages sent to freebsd-hackers bundled together and mailed out
as a single message. The average digest size is about 40kB.
This list is Read-Only and should not be posted to.
General discussion of FreeBSD
hardware General discussion about the types of
hardware that FreeBSD runs on, various problems and suggestions
concerning what to buy or avoid.
Installation discussion
This mailing list is for discussing FreeBSD installation
development for the future releases and is closed.
Issues for Internet Service Providers
This mailing list is for discussing topics relevant to Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) using FreeBSD.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Newbies activities discussion
We cover any of the activities of newbies that are not already dealt with
elsewhere, including: independent learning and problem solving techniques,
finding and using resources and asking for help elsewhere, how to use
mailing lists and which lists to use, general chat, making mistakes,
boasting, sharing ideas, stories, moral (but not technical) support, and
taking an active part in the FreeBSD community. We take our problems and
support questions to freebsd-questions, and use freebsd-newbies to meet
others who are doing the same things that we do as newbies.
Porting to Non-Intel
platforms Cross-platform freebsd issues, general
discussion and proposals for non-Intel FreeBSD ports.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Discussion of "ports"
Discussions concerning FreeBSD's "ports collection" (/usr/ports), proposed
ports, modifications to ports collection infrastructure and general
coordination efforts.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
User questions
This is the mailing list for questions about FreeBSD. You should not
send "how to" questions to the technical lists unless you consider the
question to be pretty technical.
User questions
This is the digest version of the freebsd-questions mailing list.
The digest consists of all messages sent to freebsd-questions
bundled together and mailed out as a single message. The average
digest size is about 40kB.
SCSI subsystem
This is the mailing list for people working on the scsi subsystem
for FreeBSD.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Security issues
FreeBSD computer security issues (DES, Kerberos, known security holes and
fixes, etc).
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Security Notifications
Notifications of FreeBSD security problems and fixes. This is not
a discussion list. The discussion list is FreeBSD-security.
FreeBSD Embedded
This list discusses topics related to unusually small and embedded
FreeBSD installations.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-stable This is the mailing list for users
of freebsd-stable. It includes warnings about new features
coming out in -stable that will affect the users, and
instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -stable.
Anyone running ``stable'' should subscribe to this list.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.
User Group Coordination List
This is the mailing list for the coordinators from each of the
local area Users Groups to discuss matters with each other and a
designated individual from the Core Team. This mail list should
be limited to meeting synopsis and coordination of projects that span
User Groups. It is a closed list.
Usenet newsgroups
In addition to two FreeBSD specific newsgroups, there
are many others in which FreeBSD is discussed or are
otherwise relevant to FreeBSD users. are available for
some of these newsgroups from courtesy of Warren Toomey
<wkt@cs.adfa.oz.au>.
BSD specific newsgroups