07c5e559ce
- wrap long lines - use tabs instead of spaces - space after content (inserting a ) - capitalization - use two spaces at sentence start Event: vBSDcon 2019
644 lines
24 KiB
XML
644 lines
24 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
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<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook XML V5.0-Based Extension//EN"
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"http://www.FreeBSD.org/XML/share/xml/freebsd50.dtd">
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<article xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="5.0"
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xml:lang="en">
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<info>
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<title>How to get Best Results from the FreeBSD-questions Mailing
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List</title>
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<author>
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<personname>
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<firstname>Greg</firstname>
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<surname>Lehey</surname>
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</personname>
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<affiliation>
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<address>
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<email>grog@FreeBSD.org</email>
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</address>
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</affiliation>
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</author>
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<legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
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&tm-attrib.freebsd;
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&tm-attrib.microsoft;
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&tm-attrib.opengroup;
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&tm-attrib.qualcomm;
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&tm-attrib.general;
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</legalnotice>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<releaseinfo>$FreeBSD$</releaseinfo>
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<abstract>
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<para>This document provides useful information for people
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looking to prepare an e-mail to the FreeBSD-questions mailing
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list. Advice and hints are given that will maximize the
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chance that the reader will receive useful replies.</para>
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<para>This document is regularly posted to the FreeBSD-questions
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mailing list.</para>
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</abstract>
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</info>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="Introduction">Introduction</title>
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<para><literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> is a mailing list
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maintained by the FreeBSD project to help people who have
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questions about the normal use of FreeBSD. Another group,
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>, discusses more advanced
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questions such as future development work.</para>
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<note>
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<para>The term <quote>hacker</quote> has nothing to do with
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breaking into other people's computers. The correct term for
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the latter activity is <quote>cracker</quote>, but the popular
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press has not found out yet. The FreeBSD hackers disapprove
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strongly of cracking security, and have nothing to do with it.
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For a longer description of hackers, see Eric Raymond's <link
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xlink:href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How
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To Become A Hacker</link></para>
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</note>
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<para>This is a regular posting aimed to help both those seeking
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advice from FreeBSD-questions (the <quote>newcomers</quote>),
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and also those who answer the questions (the
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<quote>hackers</quote>).</para>
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<para>Inevitably there is some friction, which stems from the
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different viewpoints of the two groups. The newcomers accuse
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the hackers of being arrogant, stuck-up, and unhelpful, while
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the hackers accuse the newcomers of being stupid, unable to read
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plain English, and expecting everything to be handed to them on
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a silver platter. Of course, there is an element of truth in
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both these claims, but for the most part these viewpoints come
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from a sense of frustration.</para>
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<para>In this document, I would like to do something to relieve
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this frustration and help everybody get better results from
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FreeBSD-questions. In the following section, I recommend how to
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submit a question; after that, we will look at how to answer
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one.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="subscribe">How to Subscribe to
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FreeBSD-questions</title>
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<para>FreeBSD-questions is a mailing list, so you need mail
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access. Point your WWW browser to the <link
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xlink:href="&a.questions.url;">information page of the
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FreeBSD-questions mailing list</link>. In the section titled
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<quote>Subscribing to freebsd-questions</quote> fill
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in the <quote>Your email address</quote> field; the other fields
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are optional.</para>
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<note>
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<para>The password fields in the subscription form provide only
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mild security, but should prevent others from messing with
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your subscription. <emphasis>Do not use a valuable
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password</emphasis> as it will occasionally be emailed back
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to you in cleartext.</para>
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</note>
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<para>You will receive a confirmation message from
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<application>mailman</application>; follow the included
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instructions to complete your subscription.</para>
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<para>Finally, when you get the <quote>Welcome</quote> message
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from <application>mailman</application> telling you the details
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of the list and subscription area password, <emphasis>please
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save it</emphasis>. If you ever should want to leave the
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list, you will need the information there. See the next section
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for more details.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="unsubscribe">How to Unsubscribe from
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FreeBSD-questions</title>
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<para>When you subscribed to FreeBSD-questions, you got a welcome
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message from <application>mailman</application>. In this
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message, amongst other things, it told you how to unsubscribe.
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Here is a typical message:</para>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Welcome to the
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freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list!
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To post to this list, send your email to:
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freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
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General information about the mailing list is at:
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https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (e.g., switch to
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or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your
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subscription page at:
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https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions/grog%40lemsi.de
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You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to:
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freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org
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with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the
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quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions.
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You must know your password to change your options (including changing
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the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. It is:
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12345
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Normally, Mailman will remind you of your freebsd.org mailing list
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passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you
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prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to
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unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on
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your options page that will email your current password to you.</literallayout>
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<para>From the URL specified in your <quote>Welcome</quote>
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message you may visit the <quote>Account management page</quote>
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and enter a request to <quote>Unsubscribe</quote> you from
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FreeBSD-questions mailing list.</para>
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<para>A confirmation message will be sent to you from
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<application>mailman</application>; follow the included
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instructions to finish unsubscribing.</para>
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<para>If you have done this, and you still cannot figure out what
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is going on, send a message to
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<email>freebsd-questions-request@FreeBSD.org</email>, and they
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will sort things out for you. <emphasis>Do not</emphasis> send
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a message to FreeBSD-questions: they cannot help you.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="askwho">Should I ask <literal>-questions</literal>
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or <literal>-hackers</literal>?</title>
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<para>Two mailing lists handle general questions about FreeBSD,
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<literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> and
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>. In some cases, it is not
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really clear which group you should ask. The following criteria
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should help for 99% of all questions, however:</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question is of a general nature, ask
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<literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>. Examples might be
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questions about installing FreeBSD or the use of a
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particular &unix; utility.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you are
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not sure, or you do not know how to look for it, send the
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message to <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question relates to a bug, and you are
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<emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it is a bug (for example, you
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can pinpoint the place in the code where it happens, and you
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maybe have a fix), then send the message to
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question relates to enhancements to FreeBSD, and
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you can make suggestions about how to implement them, then
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send the message to
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para>There are also a number of other <link
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xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/eresources-mail.html">specialized
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mailing lists</link>, which caters to more specific interests.
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The criteria above still apply, and it is in your interest to
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stick to them, since you are more likely to get good results
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that way.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="before">Before Submitting a Question</title>
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<para>You can (and should) do some things yourself before asking a
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question on one of the mailing lists:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Try solving the problem on your own. If you post a
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question which shows that you have tried to solve the
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problem, your question will generally attract more positive
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attention from people reading it. Trying to solve the
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problem yourself will also enhance your understanding of
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FreeBSD, and will eventually let you use your knowledge to
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help others by answering questions posted to the mailing
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lists.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Read the manual pages, and the FreeBSD documentation
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(either installed in <filename>/usr/doc</filename> or
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accessible via WWW at <uri
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xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org">http://www.FreeBSD.org</uri>),
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especially the <link
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xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">handbook</link>
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and the <link
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xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/index.html">FAQ</link>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Browse and/or search the archives for the mailing list,
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to see if your question or a similar one has been asked (and
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possibly answered) on the list. You can browse and/or
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search the mailing list archives at <uri
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xlink:href="https://www.FreeBSD.org/mail">https://www.FreeBSD.org/mail</uri>
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and <uri
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xlink:href="https://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">https://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists</uri>
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respectively. This can be done at other WWW sites as well,
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for example at <uri
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xlink:href="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com">http://marc.theaimsgroup.com</uri>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Use a search engine such as <link
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xlink:href="http://www.google.com">Google</link>
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or <link
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xlink:href="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo</link> to find
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answers to your question.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title xml:id="submit">How to Submit a Question</title>
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<para>When submitting a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider
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the following points:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Remember that nobody gets paid for answering a FreeBSD
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question. They do it of their own free will. You can
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influence this free will positively by submitting a
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well-formulated question supplying as much relevant
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information as possible. You can influence this free will
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negatively by submitting an incomplete, illegible, or rude
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question. It is perfectly possible to send a message to
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FreeBSD-questions and not get an answer even if you follow
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these rules. It is much more possible to not get an answer
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if you do not. In the rest of this document, we will look
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at how to get the most out of your question to
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FreeBSD-questions.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Not everybody who answers FreeBSD questions reads every
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message: they look at the subject line and decide whether it
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interests them. Clearly, it is in your interest to specify
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a subject. <quote>FreeBSD
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problem</quote> or <quote>Help</quote> are not enough. If
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you provide no subject at all, many people will not bother
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reading it. If your subject is not specific enough, the
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people who can answer it may not read it.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Format your message so that it is legible, and
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PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!. We appreciate that a lot of
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people do not speak English as their first language, and we
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try to make allowances for that, but it is really painful to
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try to read a message written full of typos or without any
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line breaks.</para>
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<para>Do not underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted
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mail message has, not just on the FreeBSD-questions mailing
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list. Your mail message is all people see of you, and if it
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is poorly formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt, or
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full of errors, it will give people a poor impression of
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you.</para>
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<para>A lot of badly formatted messages come from <link
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xlink:href="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad
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mailers or badly configured mailers</link>. The following
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mailers are known to send out badly formatted messages
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without you finding out about them:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>&eudora;</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>exmh</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>µsoft; Exchange</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>µsoft; &outlook;</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>Try not to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people
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use mailers which do not get on very well with
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<acronym>MIME</acronym>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly.
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This may seem a little silly, since your message still gets
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there, but many of the people you are trying to reach get
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several hundred messages a day. They frequently sort the
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incoming messages by subject and by date, and if your
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message does not come before the first answer, they may
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assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Do not include unrelated questions in the same message.
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Firstly, a long message tends to scare people off, and
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secondly, it is more difficult to get all the people who can
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answer all the questions to read the message.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Specify as much information as possible. This is a
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difficult area, and we need to expand on what information
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you need to submit, but here is a start:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>In nearly every case, it is important to know the
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version of FreeBSD you are running. This is
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particularly the case for FreeBSD-CURRENT, where you
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should also specify the date of the sources, though of
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course you should not be sending questions about
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-CURRENT to FreeBSD-questions.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>With any problem which <emphasis>could</emphasis> be
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hardware related, tell us about your hardware. In case
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of doubt, assume it is possible that it is hardware.
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What kind of CPU are you using? How fast? What
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motherboard? How much memory? What peripherals?</para>
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<para>There is a judgement call here, of course, but the
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output of the &man.dmesg.8; command can frequently be
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very useful, since it tells not just what hardware you
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are running, but what version of FreeBSD as well.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you get error messages, do not say <quote>I get
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error messages</quote>, say (for example) <quote>I get
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the error message 'No route to host'</quote>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If your system panics, do not say <quote>My system
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panicked</quote>, say (for example) <quote>my system
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panicked with the message 'free vnode
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isn't'</quote>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you have difficulty installing FreeBSD, please
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tell us what hardware you have. In particular, it is
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important to know the IRQs and I/O addresses of the
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boards installed in your machine.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you have difficulty getting PPP to run, describe
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the configuration. Which version of PPP do you use?
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What kind of authentication do you have? Do you have a
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static or dynamic IP address? What kind of messages do
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you get in the log file?</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the
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output of programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console
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messages, which usually appear in
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<filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
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this information by typing it in again; it is a real pain,
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and you are bound to make a mistake. To send log file
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contents, either make a copy of the file and use an editor
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to trim the information to what is relevant, or cut and
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paste into your message. For the output of programs like
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&man.dmesg.8;, redirect the output to a file and include
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that. For example,</para>
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<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.out</userinput></screen>
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<para>This redirects the information to the file
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<filename>/tmp/dmesg.out</filename>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you do all this, and you still do not get an answer,
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there could be other reasons. For example, the problem is
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so complicated that nobody knows the answer, or the person
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who does know the answer was offline. If you do not get an
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answer after, say, a week, it might help to re-send the
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message. If you do not get an answer to your second
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message, though, you are probably not going to get one
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from this forum. Resending the same message again and again
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will only make you unpopular.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>To summarize, let's assume you know the answer to the
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following question (yes, it is the same one in each case).
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You choose which of these two questions you would be more
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prepared to answer:</para>
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<example>
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<title>Message 1</title>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: HELP!!?!??
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I just can't get hits damn silly FereBSD system to
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workd, and Im really good at this tsuff, but I have never seen
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anythign sho difficult to install, it jst wont work whatever I try
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so why don't you guys tell me what I doing wrong.</literallayout>
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</example>
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<example>
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<title>Message 2</title>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: Problems installing FreeBSD
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I've just got the FreeBSD 2.1.5 CDROM from Walnut Creek, and I'm having a lot
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of difficulty installing it. I have a 66 MHz 486 with 16 MB of
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memory and an Adaptec 1540A SCSI board, a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball
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disk and a Toshiba 3501XA CDROM drive. The installation works just
|
|
fine, but when I try to reboot the system, I get the message
|
|
<quote>Missing Operating System</quote>.</literallayout>
|
|
</example>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
<sect1>
|
|
<title xml:id="followup">How to Follow up to a Question</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Often you will want to send in additional information to a
|
|
question you have already sent. The best way to do this is to
|
|
reply to your original message. This has three
|
|
advantages:</para>
|
|
|
|
<orderedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>You include the original message text, so people will
|
|
know what you are talking about. Do not forget to trim
|
|
unnecessary text out, though.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The text in the subject line stays the same (you did
|
|
remember to put one in, did you not?). Many mailers will
|
|
sort messages by subject. This helps group messages
|
|
together.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The message reference numbers in the header will refer
|
|
to the previous message. Some mailers, such as <link
|
|
xlink:href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</link>, can
|
|
<emphasis>thread</emphasis> messages, showing the exact
|
|
relationships between the messages.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</orderedlist>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
<sect1>
|
|
<title xml:id="answer">How to Answer a Question</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Before you answer a question to FreeBSD-questions,
|
|
consider:</para>
|
|
|
|
<orderedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>A lot of the points on submitting questions also apply
|
|
to answering questions. Read them.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Has somebody already answered the question? The easiest
|
|
way to check this is to sort your incoming mail by subject:
|
|
then (hopefully) you will see the question followed by any
|
|
answers, all together.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If somebody has already answered it, it does not
|
|
automatically mean that you should not send another answer.
|
|
But it makes sense to read all the other answers
|
|
first.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Do you have something to contribute beyond what has
|
|
already been said? In general, <quote>Yeah, me too</quote>
|
|
answers do not help much, although there are exceptions,
|
|
like when somebody is describing a problem they are having,
|
|
and they do not know whether it is their fault or whether
|
|
there is something wrong with the hardware or software. If
|
|
you do send a <quote>me too</quote> answer, you should
|
|
also include any further relevant information.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Are you sure you understand the question? Very
|
|
frequently, the person who asks the question is confused or
|
|
does not express themselves very well. Even with the best
|
|
understanding of the system, it is easy to send a reply
|
|
which does not answer the question. This does not help: you
|
|
will leave the person who submitted the question more
|
|
frustrated or confused than ever. If nobody else answers,
|
|
and you are not too sure either, you can always ask for more
|
|
information.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Are you sure your answer is correct? If not, wait a day
|
|
or so. If nobody else comes up with a better answer, you
|
|
can still reply and say, for example, <quote>I do not know
|
|
if this is correct, but since nobody else has replied, why
|
|
don't you try replacing your ATAPI CDROM with a
|
|
frog?</quote>.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, reply to
|
|
the sender and to FreeBSD-questions. Many people on the
|
|
FreeBSD-questions are <quote>lurkers</quote>: they learn by
|
|
reading messages sent and replied to by others. If you take
|
|
a message which is of general interest off the list, you are
|
|
depriving these people of their information. Be careful
|
|
with group replies; lots of people send messages with
|
|
hundreds of CCs. If this is the case, be sure to trim the
|
|
Cc: lines appropriately.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Include relevant text from the original message. Trim
|
|
it to the minimum, but do not overdo it. It should still be
|
|
possible for somebody who did not read the original message
|
|
to understand what you are talking about.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Use some technique to identify which text came from the
|
|
original message, and which text you add. I personally find
|
|
that prepending <quote><literal>> </literal></quote>
|
|
to the original message works best. Leaving white space
|
|
after the <quote><literal>> ;</literal></quote> and
|
|
leave empty lines between your text and the original text
|
|
both make the result more readable.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Put your response in the correct place (after the text
|
|
to which it replies). It is very difficult to read a thread
|
|
of responses where each reply comes before the text to which
|
|
it replies.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Most mailers change the subject line on a reply by
|
|
prepending a text such as <quote>Re: </quote>. If your
|
|
mailer does not do it automatically, you should do it
|
|
manually.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>If the submitter did not abide by format conventions
|
|
(lines too long, inappropriate subject line)
|
|
<emphasis>please</emphasis> fix it. In the case of an
|
|
incorrect subject line (such as <quote>HELP!!??</quote>),
|
|
change the subject line to (say) <quote>Re: Difficulties
|
|
with sync PPP (was: HELP!!??)</quote>. That way other
|
|
people trying to follow the thread will have less
|
|
difficulty following it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In such cases, it is appropriate to say what you did and
|
|
why you did it, but try not to be rude. If you find you can
|
|
not answer without being rude, do not answer.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If you just want to reply to a message because of its
|
|
bad format, just reply to the submitter, not to the list.
|
|
You can just send him this message in reply, if you
|
|
like.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</orderedlist>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
</article>
|