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411 lines
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
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"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
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<head>
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<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" />
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<title>FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE README</title>
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<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79" />
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<link rel="STYLESHEET" type="text/css" href="docbook.css" />
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
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</head>
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<body class="article" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084"
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alink="#0000FF">
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<div class="ARTICLE">
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<div class="TITLEPAGE">
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<h1 class="title"><a id="AEN2" name="AEN2">FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE README</a></h1>
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<h3 class="corpauthor">The FreeBSD Project</h3>
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<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007,
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2008 The FreeBSD Documentation Project</p>
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<p class="pubdate">$FreeBSD: releng/8.4/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/readme/article.xml
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241718 2012-10-19 03:01:25Z gjb $<br />
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</p>
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<div class="legalnotice"><a id="trademarks" name="trademarks"></a>
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<p>FreeBSD is a registered trademark of the FreeBSD Foundation.</p>
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<p>Intel, Celeron, EtherExpress, i386, i486, Itanium, Pentium, and Xeon are trademarks or
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registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and
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other countries.</p>
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<p>Motif, OSF/1, and UNIX are registered trademarks and IT DialTone and The Open Group
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are trademarks of The Open Group in the United States and other countries.</p>
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<p>SPARC, SPARC64, SPARCengine, and UltraSPARC are trademarks of SPARC International, Inc
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in the United States and other countries. SPARC International, Inc owns all of the SPARC
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trademarks and under licensing agreements allows the proper use of these trademarks by
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its members.</p>
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<p>Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their
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products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this document, and
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the FreeBSD Project was aware of the trademark claim, the designations have been followed
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by the “™” or the “<EFBFBD>” symbol.</p>
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</div>
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<hr />
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</div>
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<blockquote class="ABSTRACT">
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<div class="abstract"><a id="AEN25" name="AEN25"></a>
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<p>This document gives a brief introduction to FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE. It includes some
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information on how to obtain FreeBSD, a listing of various ways to contact the FreeBSD
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Project, and pointers to some other sources of information.</p>
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</div>
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</blockquote>
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<div class="sect1">
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<hr />
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<h2 class="sect1"><a id="intro" name="intro">1 Introduction</a></h2>
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<p>This distribution is a release of FreeBSD 8.4-RELEASE, the latest point along the
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8.4-STABLE branch.</p>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN30" name="AEN30">1.1 About FreeBSD</a></h3>
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<p>FreeBSD is an operating system based on 4.4 BSD Lite for 	AMD64 and Intel EM64T
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based PC hardware (amd64), 	Intel, AMD, Cyrix or NexGen “x86” based PC
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hardware (i386), 	Intel Itanium Processor based computers (ia64), 	NEC
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PC-9801/9821 series PCs and compatibles (pc98), 	and <span
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class="trademark">UltraSPARC</span>® machines (sparc64). Versions 	for the <span
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class="trademark">ARM</span>® (arm), <span class="trademark">MIPS</span>® (mips),
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and 	<span class="trademark">PowerPC</span>® (powerpc) architectures are
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currently under 	development as well. FreeBSD works with a wide variety of
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	peripherals and configurations and can be used for everything 	from software
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development to games to Internet Service 	Provision.</p>
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<p>This release of FreeBSD contains everything you need to run 	such a system,
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including full source code for the kernel and 	all utilities in the base
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distribution. With the source 	distribution installed, you can literally recompile
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the entire 	system from scratch with one command, making it ideal for 	students,
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researchers, or users who simply want to see how it 	all works.</p>
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<p>A large collection of third-party ported software (the 	“Ports
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Collection”) is also provided to make it 	easy to obtain and install all your
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favorite traditional <span class="trademark">UNIX</span>® 	utilities for FreeBSD.
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Each “port” consists of a 	set of scripts to retrieve, configure, build,
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and install a 	piece of software, with a single command. Over 24,000 	ports, from
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editors to programming languages to graphical 	applications, make FreeBSD a powerful
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and comprehensive operating 	environment that extends far beyond what's provided by
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many 	commercial versions of <span class="trademark">UNIX</span>. Most ports are also
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available as 	pre-compiled “packages”, which can be quickly
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	installed from the installation program.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN45" name="AEN45">1.2 Target Audience</a></h3>
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<p>This release of FreeBSD is suitable for all users. It 	has undergone a period of
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testing and quality assurance 	checking to ensure the highest reliability and
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	dependability.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="sect1">
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<hr />
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<h2 class="sect1"><a id="obtain" name="obtain">2 Obtaining FreeBSD</a></h2>
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<p>FreeBSD may be obtained in a variety of ways. This section focuses on those ways that
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are primarily useful for obtaining a complete FreeBSD distribution, rather than updating
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an existing installation.</p>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN51" name="AEN51">2.1 CDROM and DVD</a></h3>
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<p>FreeBSD -RELEASE distributions may be ordered on CDROM or DVD 	from several
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publishers. This is frequently the most 	convenient way to obtain FreeBSD for new
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installations, as it 	provides a convenient way to quickly reinstall the system if
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	necessary. Some distributions include some of the optional, 	precompiled
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“packages” from the FreeBSD Ports 	Collection, or other extra
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material.</p>
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<p>A list of the CDROM and DVD publishers known to the 	project are listed in the <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors.html"
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target="_top">“Obtaining 	FreeBSD”</a> appendix to the Handbook.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN58" name="AEN58">2.2 FTP</a></h3>
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<p>You can use FTP to retrieve FreeBSD and any or all of its 	optional packages from
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<a href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/" target="_top">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</a>, which is the
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official 	FreeBSD release site, or any of its 	“mirrors”.</p>
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<p>Lists of locations that mirror FreeBSD can be found in the 	<a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/mirrors-ftp.html"
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target="_top">FTP 	Sites</a> section of the Handbook, or on the <a
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href="http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/" target="_top">http://mirrorlist.FreeBSD.org/</a>
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Web pages. 	Finding a close (in networking terms) mirror from which to 	download
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the distribution is highly recommended.</p>
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<p>Additional mirror sites are always welcome. Contact 	<code class="email"><<a
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href="mailto:freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org">freebsd-admin@FreeBSD.org</a>></code> for
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more details on 	becoming an official mirror site. You can also find useful
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information for mirror sites at the <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/hubs/" target="_top">Mirroring
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FreeBSD</a> article.</p>
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<p>Mirrors generally contain the ISO images generally used to 	create a CDROM of a
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FreeBSD release. They usually also contain 	floppy disk images (for applicable
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platforms), as well as the 	files necessary to do an installation over the network.
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	Finally mirrors sites usually contain a set of packages for 	the most current
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release.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="sect1">
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<hr />
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<h2 class="sect1"><a id="contacting" name="contacting">3 Contacting the FreeBSD
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Project</a></h2>
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<div class="sect2">
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN72" name="AEN72">3.1 Email and Mailing Lists</a></h3>
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<p>For any questions or general technical support issues, 	please send mail to the <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions" target="_top">FreeBSD
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general questions mailing list</a>.</p>
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<p>If you're tracking the 8.4-STABLE development efforts, you 	<span
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class="emphasis"><i class="emphasis">must</i></span> join the <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current"
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target="_top">FreeBSD-CURRENT mailing list</a>, in order to 	keep abreast of recent
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developments and changes that may 	affect the way you use and maintain the
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system.</p>
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<p>Being a largely-volunteer effort, the FreeBSD 	Project is always happy to have
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extra hands willing to help—there are already far more desired enhancements than
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	there is time to implement them. To contact the developers on 	technical
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matters, or with offers of help, please send mail to 	the <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-hackers" target="_top">FreeBSD
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technical discussions mailing list</a>.</p>
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<p>Please note that these mailing lists can experience 	<span class="emphasis"><i
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class="emphasis">significant</i></span> amounts of traffic. If you 	have slow or
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expensive mail access, or are only interested in 	keeping up with major FreeBSD
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events, you may find it 	preferable to subscribe instead to the <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-announce" target="_top">FreeBSD
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announcements mailing list</a>.</p>
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<p>All of the mailing lists can be freely joined by anyone 	wishing to do so. Visit
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the <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo" target="_top"> 	FreeBSD
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Mailman Info Page</a>. This will give you more 	information on joining the various
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lists, accessing archives, 	etc. There are a number of mailing lists targeted at
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special 	interest groups not mentioned here; more information can be 	obtained
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either from the Mailman pages or the <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/support.html#mailing-list" target="_top">mailing 	lists
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section</a> of the FreeBSD Web site.</p>
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<div class="important">
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<blockquote class="important">
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<p><b>Important:</b> Do <span class="emphasis"><i class="emphasis">not</i></span> send
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email to the lists 	 asking to be subscribed. Use the Mailman interface 	
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instead.</p>
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</blockquote>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN90" name="AEN90">3.2 Submitting Problem Reports</a></h3>
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<p>Suggestions, bug reports and contributions of code are 	always valued—please
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do not hesitate to report any 	problems you may find. Bug reports with attached fixes
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are of 	course even more welcome.</p>
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<p>The preferred method to submit bug reports from a machine 	with Internet mail
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connectivity is to use the <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=send-pr&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
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<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">send-pr</span>(1)</span></a>
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	command. 	“Problem Reports” (PRs) submitted in this way 	will be
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filed and their progress tracked; the FreeBSD developers 	will do their best to
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respond to all reported bugs as soon as 	possible. <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi" target="_top">A list 	of all
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active PRs</a> is available on the FreeBSD Web site; 	this list is useful to see what
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||
potential problems other users 	have encountered.</p>
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<p>Note that <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=send-pr&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
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<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">send-pr</span>(1)</span></a>
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itself is a shell script that 	should be easy to move even onto a non-FreeBSD system.
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Using 	this interface is highly preferred. If, for some reason, you 	are unable
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to use <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=send-pr&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
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<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">send-pr</span>(1)</span></a> to
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submit a bug report, you 	can try to send it to the <a
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href="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-bugs" target="_top">FreeBSD
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problem reports mailing list</a>.</p>
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<p>For more information, <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/problem-reports/"
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target="_top">“Writing 	FreeBSD Problem Reports”</a>, available on the
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FreeBSD Web 	site, has a number of helpful hints on writing and submitting
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	effective problem reports.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div class="sect1">
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<hr />
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<h2 class="sect1"><a id="seealso" name="seealso">4 Further Reading</a></h2>
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<p>There are many sources of information about FreeBSD; some are included with this
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distribution, while others are available on-line or in print versions.</p>
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<div class="sect2">
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<hr />
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<h3 class="sect2"><a id="release-docs" name="release-docs">4.1 Release
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Documentation</a></h3>
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<p>A number of other files provide more specific information 	about this release
|
||
distribution. These files are 	provided in various formats. Most distributions will
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||
include 	both ASCII text (<tt class="filename">.TXT</tt>) and HTML 	(<tt
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||
class="filename">.HTM</tt>) renditions. Some distributions 	may also include other
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||
formats such as Portable Document Format 	(<tt class="filename">.PDF</tt>). 	</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<p><tt class="filename">README.TXT</tt>: This file, which 	 gives some general
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information about FreeBSD as well as 	 some cursory notes about obtaining a 	
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distribution.</p>
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||
</li>
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<li>
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<p><tt class="filename">RELNOTES.TXT</tt>: The release 	 notes, showing what's new
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and different in FreeBSD 	 8.4-RELEASE compared to the previous release (FreeBSD
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	 8.3-RELEASE).</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p><tt class="filename">HARDWARE.TXT</tt>: The hardware 	 compatibility list, showing
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devices with which FreeBSD has 	 been tested and is known to work.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<p><tt class="filename">ERRATA.TXT</tt>: Release errata. 	 Late-breaking,
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post-release information can be found in 	 this file, which is principally applicable
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to releases 	 (as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult 	 this file
|
||
before installing a release of FreeBSD, as it 	 contains the latest information on
|
||
problems which have 	 been found and fixed since the release was 	 created.</p>
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||
</li>
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||
</ul>
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<br />
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<br />
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<p>On platforms that support <a
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href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sysinstall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
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||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">sysinstall</span>(8)</span></a>
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||
(currently 	amd64, i386, ia64, pc98, and 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 	<a
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||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=sysinstall&sektion=8&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
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||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">sysinstall</span>(8)</span></a>
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||
utility.</p>
|
||
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||
<div class="note">
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||
<blockquote class="note">
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||
<p><b>Note:</b> It is extremely important to read the errata for any 	 given release
|
||
before installing it, to learn about any 	 “late-breaking news” 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 “current
|
||
errata” for this 	 release. These other copies of the errata are located at
|
||
	 <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/"
|
||
target="_top">http://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/</a> (as 	 well as any sites which keep
|
||
up-to-date mirrors of this 	 location).</p>
|
||
</blockquote>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
<div class="sect2">
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||
<hr />
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||
<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN144" name="AEN144">4.2 Manual Pages</a></h3>
|
||
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||
<p>As with almost all <span class="trademark">UNIX</span> like operating systems, FreeBSD
|
||
comes 	with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the 	<a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=man&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
|
||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">man</span>(1)</span></a> command
|
||
or through the <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi" target="_top">hypertext
|
||
manual 	pages gateway</a> on the FreeBSD Web site. In general, the 	manual pages
|
||
provide information on the different commands and 	APIs available to the FreeBSD
|
||
user.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>In some cases, manual pages are written to give 	information on particular topics.
|
||
Notable examples of such 	manual pages are <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tuning&sektion=7&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
|
||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">tuning</span>(7)</span></a> (a
|
||
guide to performance tuning), 	<a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=security&sektion=7&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
|
||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">security</span>(7)</span></a> (an
|
||
introduction to FreeBSD security), and 	<a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=style&sektion=9&manpath=FreeBSD+8.4-RELEASE">
|
||
<span class="citerefentry"><span class="refentrytitle">style</span>(9)</span></a> (a
|
||
style guide to kernel coding).</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
<div class="sect2">
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h3 class="sect2"><a id="AEN162" name="AEN162">4.3 Books and Articles</a></h3>
|
||
|
||
<p>Two highly-useful collections of FreeBSD-related information, 	maintained by the
|
||
FreeBSD Project, 	are the FreeBSD Handbook and FreeBSD FAQ (Frequently Asked
|
||
	Questions document). On-line versions of the <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/"
|
||
target="_top">Handbook</a> 	and <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/faq/" target="_top">FAQ</a>
|
||
	are always available from the <a href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html"
|
||
target="_top">FreeBSD Documentation 	page</a> or its mirrors. If you install the
|
||
	<tt class="filename">doc</tt> 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 FreeBSD.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by the FreeBSD Project, cover
|
||
more-specialized, FreeBSD-related topics. This material spans a wide range of topics,
|
||
from effective use of the mailing lists, to dual-booting FreeBSD with other operating
|
||
systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the Handbook and FAQ, these documents are
|
||
available from the FreeBSD Documentation Page or in the <tt class="filename">doc</tt>
|
||
distribution set.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>A listing of other books and documents about FreeBSD can be found in the <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/bibliography.html"
|
||
target="_top">bibliography</a> of the FreeBSD Handbook. Because of FreeBSD's strong <span
|
||
class="trademark">UNIX</span> heritage, many other articles and books written for <span
|
||
class="trademark">UNIX</span> systems are applicable as well, some of which are also
|
||
listed in the bibliography.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
<div class="sect1">
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<h2 class="sect1"><a id="acknowledgements" name="acknowledgements">5
|
||
Acknowledgments</a></h2>
|
||
|
||
<p>FreeBSD 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. For a complete list of FreeBSD developers and contributors, please see <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/contributors/"
|
||
target="_top">“Contributors to FreeBSD”</a> on the FreeBSD Web site or any of
|
||
its mirrors.</p>
|
||
|
||
<p>Special thanks also go to the many thousands of FreeBSD users and testers all over the
|
||
world, without whom this release simply would not have been possible.</p>
|
||
</div>
|
||
</div>
|
||
|
||
<hr />
|
||
<p align="center"><small>This file, and other release-related documents, can be
|
||
downloaded from <a href="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/">ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/</a>.</small></p>
|
||
|
||
<p align="center"><small>For questions about FreeBSD, read the <a
|
||
href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/docs.html">documentation</a> before contacting <<a
|
||
href="mailto:questions@FreeBSD.org">questions@FreeBSD.org</a>>.</small></p>
|
||
|
||
<p align="center"><small>For questions about this documentation, e-mail <<a
|
||
href="mailto:doc@FreeBSD.org">doc@FreeBSD.org</a>>.</small></p>
|
||
</body>
|
||
</html>
|
||
|