272d306a05
Fixed a contraction. Changed 'freebsd.org' to 'FreeBSD.org' PR: docs/12179 Submitted by: Chris Costello <chris@calldei.com>
607 lines
28 KiB
Text
607 lines
28 KiB
Text
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The FreeBSD Documentation Project
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$Id: chapter.sgml,v 1.13 1999-06-13 16:18:55 nik Exp $
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-->
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<chapter id="introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>FreeBSD is a 4.4BSD-Lite2 based operating system for Intel architecture
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(x86) and DEC Alpha based computer systems. For an overview of FreeBSD, see
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<link linkend="nutshell">FreeBSD in a nutshell</link>. For a history of
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the project, read <link linkend="history">a brief history of FreeBSD</link>.
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To see a description of the latest release, read <link
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linkend="relnotes">about the current release</link>. If you are
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interested in contributing something to the FreeBSD project (code,
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equipment, sacks of unmarked bills), please see about <link
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linkend="contrib">contributing to FreeBSD</link>.</para>
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<sect1 id="nutshell">
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<title>FreeBSD in a Nutshell</title>
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<para>FreeBSD is a state of the art operating system for computer
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systems based on both the Intel CPU architecture, which includes the
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386 and 486 and Pentium processors (both SX and DX versions) and the DEC
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Alpha architecture. Intel compatible CPUs from AMD to Cyrix are
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supported as well. FreeBSD provides you with many advanced features
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previously available only on much more expensive computers.
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These features include:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Preemptive multitasking</emphasis> with dynamic
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priority adjustment to ensure smooth and fair sharing of the
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computer between applications and users.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Multiuser</emphasis> access means that many people can
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use a FreeBSD system simultaneously for a variety of things. System
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peripherals such as printers and tape drives are also properly
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SHARED BETWEEN ALL users on the system.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Complete <emphasis>TCP/IP networking</emphasis> including SLIP,
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PPP, NFS and NIS support. This means that your FreeBSD machine can
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inter-operate easily with other systems as well act as an enterprise
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server, providing vital functions such as NFS (remote file access)
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and e-mail services or putting your organization on the Internet
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with WWW, ftp, routing and firewall (security) services.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Memory protection</emphasis> ensures that applications
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(or users) cannot interfere with each other. One application
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crashing will not affect others in any way.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>FreeBSD is a <emphasis>32-bit</emphasis> operating system and
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was designed as such from the ground up.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>The industry standard <emphasis>X Window System</emphasis>
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(X11R6) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the cost of a
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common VGA card and monitor and comes with full sources.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Binary compatibility</emphasis> with many programs
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built for SCO, BSDI, NetBSD, Linux and 386BSD.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Hundreds of <emphasis>ready-to-run</emphasis> applications are
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available from the FreeBSD <emphasis>ports</emphasis> and
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<emphasis>packages</emphasis> collection. Why search the net when
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you can find it all right here?</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Thousands of additional and <emphasis>easy-to-port</emphasis>
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applications available on the Internet. FreeBSD is source code
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compatible with most popular commercial Unix systems and thus most
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applications require few, if any, changes to compile.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Demand paged <emphasis>virtual memory</emphasis> and
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“merged VM/buffer cache” design efficiently satisfies
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applications with large appetites for memory while still maintaining
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interactive response to other users.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Shared libraries</emphasis> (the Unix equivalent of
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MS-Windows DLLs) provide for efficient use of disk space and
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memory.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>A full complement of <emphasis>C</emphasis>,
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<emphasis>C++</emphasis> and <emphasis>Fortran</emphasis>
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development tools. Many additional languages for advanced research
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and development are also available in the ports and packages
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collection.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Source code</emphasis> for the entire system means you
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have the greatest degree of control over your environment. Why be
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locked into a proprietary solution and at the mercy of your vendor
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when you can have a truly Open System?</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Extensive <emphasis>on-line documentation</emphasis>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>And many more!</emphasis></para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>FreeBSD is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite2 release from Computer Systems
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Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley, and
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carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems development. In
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addition to the fine work provided by CSRG, the FreeBSD Project has put
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in many thousands of hours in fine tuning the system for maximum
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performance and reliability in real-life load situations. As many of
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the commercial giants struggle to field PC operating systems with such
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features, performance and reliability, FreeBSD can offer them
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<emphasis>now</emphasis>!</para>
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<para>The applications to which FreeBSD can be put are truly limited only
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by your own imagination. From software development to factory
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automation, inventory control to azimuth correction of remote satellite
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antennae; if it can be done with a commercial UNIX product then it is
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more than likely that you can do it with FreeBSD, too! FreeBSD also
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benefits significantly from the literally thousands of high quality
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applications developed by research centers and universities around the
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world, often available at little to no cost. Commercial applications are
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also available and appearing in greater numbers every day.</para>
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<para>Because the source code for FreeBSD itself is generally available,
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the system can also be customized to an almost unheard of degree for
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special applications or projects, and in ways not generally possible
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with operating systems from most major commercial vendors. Here is just
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a sampling of some of the applications in which people are currently
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using FreeBSD:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Internet Services:</emphasis> The robust TCP/IP
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networking built into FreeBSD makes it an ideal platform for a
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variety of Internet services such as:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>FTP servers</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>World Wide Web servers</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Gopher servers</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Electronic Mail servers</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>USENET News</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Bulletin Board Systems</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>And more...</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>You can easily start out small with an inexpensive 386 class PC
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and upgrade as your enterprise grows.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Education:</emphasis> Are you a student of computer
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science or a related engineering field? There is no better way of
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learning about operating systems, computer architecture and
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networking than the hands on, under the hood experience that FreeBSD
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can provide. A number of freely available CAD, mathematical and
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graphic design packages also make it highly useful to those whose
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primary interest in a computer is to get <emphasis>other</emphasis>
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work done!</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Research:</emphasis> With source code for the entire
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system available, FreeBSD is an excellent platform for research in
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operating systems as well as other branches of computer science.
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FreeBSD's freely available nature also makes it possible for remote
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groups to collaborate on ideas or shared development without having
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to worry about special licensing agreements or limitations on what
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may be discussed in open forums.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Networking:</emphasis> Need a new router? A name
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server (DNS)? A firewall to keep people out of your internal
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network? FreeBSD can easily turn that unused 386 or 486 PC sitting
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in the corner into an advanced router with sophisticated packet
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filtering capabilities.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>X Window workstation:</emphasis> FreeBSD is a fine
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choice for an inexpensive X terminal solution, either using the
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freely available XFree86 server or one of the excellent commercial
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servers provided by X Inside. Unlike an X terminal, FreeBSD allows
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many applications to be run locally, if desired, thus relieving the
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burden on a central server. FreeBSD can even boot
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“diskless”, making individual workstations even cheaper
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and easier to administer.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Software Development:</emphasis> The basic FreeBSD
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system comes with a full complement of development tools including
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the renowned GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>FreeBSD is available in both source and binary form on CDROM and via
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anonymous ftp. See <link linkend="mirrors">Obtaining FreeBSD</link>
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for more details.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="history">
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<title>A Brief History of FreeBSD</title>
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<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.jkh;</emphasis>.</para>
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<para>The FreeBSD project had its genesis in the early part of 1993,
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partially as an outgrowth of the “Unofficial 386BSD
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Patchkit” by the patchkit's last 3 coordinators: Nate Williams,
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Rod Grimes and myself.</para>
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<para>Our original goal was to produce an intermediate snapshot of 386BSD
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in order to fix a number of problems with it that the patchkit mechanism
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just was not capable of solving. Some of you may remember the early
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working title for the project being “386BSD 0.5” or
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“386BSD Interim” in reference to that fact.</para>
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<para>386BSD was Bill Jolitz's operating system, which had been up to that
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point suffering rather severely from almost a year's worth of neglect.
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As the patchkit swelled ever more uncomfortably with each passing day,
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we were in unanimous agreement that something had to be done and decided
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to try and assist Bill by providing this interim “cleanup”
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snapshot. Those plans came to a rude halt when Bill Jolitz suddenly
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decided to withdraw his sanction from the project and without any clear
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indication of what would be done instead.</para>
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<para>It did not take us long to decide that the goal remained worthwhile,
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even without Bill's support, and so we adopted the name
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“FreeBSD”, coined by David Greenman. Our initial objectives
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were set after consulting with the system's current users and, once it
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became clear that the project was on the road to perhaps even becoming a
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reality, I contacted Walnut Creek CDROM with an eye towards improving
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FreeBSD's distribution channels for those many unfortunates without easy
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access to the Internet. Walnut Creek CDROM not only supported the idea
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of distributing FreeBSD on CD but went so far as to provide the project
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with a machine to work on and a fast Internet connection. Without
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Walnut Creek CDROM's almost unprecedented degree of faith in what was,
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at the time, a completely unknown project, it is quite unlikely that
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FreeBSD would have gotten as far, as fast, as it has today.</para>
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<para>The first CDROM (and general net-wide) distribution was FreeBSD 1.0,
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released in December of 1993. This was based on the 4.3BSD-Lite
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(“Net/2”) tape from U.C. Berkeley, with many components also
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provided by 386BSD and the Free Software Foundation. It was a fairly
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reasonable success for a first offering, and we followed it with the
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highly successful FreeBSD 1.1 release in May of 1994.</para>
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<para>Around this time, some rather unexpected storm clouds formed on the
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horizon as Novell and U.C. Berkeley settled their long-running lawsuit
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over the legal status of the Berkeley Net/2 tape. A condition of that
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settlement was U.C. Berkeley's concession that large parts of Net/2 were
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“encumbered” code and the property of Novell, who had in
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turn acquired it from AT&T some time previously. What Berkeley got
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in return was Novell's “blessing” that the 4.4BSD-Lite
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release, when it was finally released, would be declared unencumbered
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and all existing Net/2 users would be strongly encouraged to switch.
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This included FreeBSD, and the project was given until the end of July
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1994 to stop shipping its own Net/2 based product. Under the terms of
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that agreement, the project was allowed one last release before the
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deadline, that release being FreeBSD 1.1.5.1.</para>
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<para>FreeBSD then set about the arduous task of literally re-inventing
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itself from a completely new and rather incomplete set of 4.4BSD-Lite
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bits. The “Lite” releases were light in part because
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Berkeley's CSRG had removed large chunks of code required for actually
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constructing a bootable running system (due to various legal
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requirements) and the fact that the Intel port of 4.4 was highly
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incomplete. It took the project until November of 1994 to make this
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transition, at which point it released FreeBSD 2.0 to the net
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and on CDROM (in late December). Despite being still more than a little
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rough around the edges, the release was a significant success and was
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followed by the more robust and easier to install FreeBSD 2.0.5 release
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in June of 1995.</para>
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<para>We released FreeBSD 2.1.5 in August of 1996, and it appeared to be
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popular enough among the ISP and commercial communities that another
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release along the 2.1-stable branch was merited. This was FreeBSD
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2.1.7.1, released in February 1997 and capping the end of mainstream
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development on 2.1-stable. Now in maintenance mode, only security
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enhancements and other critical bug fixes will be done on this branch
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(RELENG_2_1_0).</para>
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<para>FreeBSD 2.2 was branched from the development mainline
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(“-current”) in November 1996 as the RELENG_2_2 branch, and
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the first full release (2.2.1) was released in April, 1997. Further
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releases along the 2.2 branch were done in the Summer and Fall of '97,
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the latest being 2.2.7 which appeared in late July of '98. The first
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official 3.0 release appeared in October, 1998 and the last release on
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the 2.2 branch, 2.2.8, appeared in November, 1998.</para>
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<para>The tree branched again on Jan 20, 1999. This led to 4.0-current
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and a 3.x-stable branch, from which 3.1 was released on February
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15th, 1999 and 3.2 was released on May 15, 1999.</para>
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<para>Long term development projects will continue to take place in the
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4.0-current branch and SNAPshot releases of 4.0 on CDROM (and, of
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course, on the net).</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="goals">
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<title>FreeBSD Project Goals</title>
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<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.jkh;</emphasis>.</para>
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<para>The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may be
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used for any purpose and without strings attached. Many of us have a
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significant investment in the code (and project) and would certainly not
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mind a little financial compensation now and then, but we are definitely
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not prepared to insist on it. We believe that our first and foremost
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“mission” is to provide code to any and all comers, and for
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whatever purpose, so that the code gets the widest possible use and
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provides the widest possible benefit. This is, I believe, one of the
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most fundamental goals of Free Software and one that we enthusiastically
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support.</para>
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<para>That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU General Public
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License (GPL) or Library General Public License (LGPL) comes with slightly
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more strings attached, though at least on the side of enforced access
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rather than the usual opposite. Due to the additional complexities that
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can evolve in the commercial use of GPL software, we do, however,
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endeavor to replace such software with submissions under the more
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relaxed BSD copyright when reasonable to do so.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="development">
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<title>The FreeBSD Development Model</title>
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<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.asami;</emphasis>.</para>
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<para>The development of FreeBSD is a very open and flexible process,
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FreeBSD being literally built from the contributions of hundreds of
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people around the world, as can be seen from our <link
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linkend="staff">list of contributors</link>. We are constantly on the
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lookout for new developers and ideas, and those interested in becoming
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more closely involved with the project need simply contact us at the
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&a.hackers;. Those who prefer to work more independently are also
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accommodated, and they are free to use our FTP facilities at <ulink
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URL="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/incoming">ftp.FreeBSD.org</ulink>
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to distribute their own patches or work-in-progress sources. The
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&a.announce; is also available to those wishing to make other FreeBSD
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users aware of major areas of work.</para>
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<para>Useful things to know about the FreeBSD project and its development
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process, whether working independently or in close cooperation:</para>
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<variablelist>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>The CVS repository<anchor
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id="development-cvs-repository"></term>
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<listitem>
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<para>The central source tree for FreeBSD is maintained by <ulink
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URL="http://www.cyclic.com/cyclic-pages/CVS-sheet.html">CVS</ulink>
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(Concurrent Version System), a freely available source code
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control tool which comes bundled with FreeBSD. The primary <ulink
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URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi">CVS
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repository</ulink> resides on a machine in Concord CA, USA from
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where it is replicated to numerous mirror machines throughout the
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world. The CVS tree, as well as the <link
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linkend="current">-current</link> and <link
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linkend="stable">-stable</link> trees which are checked out of
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it, can be easily replicated to your own machine as well. Please
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refer to the <link linkend="synching">Synchronizing your source
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tree</link> section for more information on doing this.</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>The committers list<anchor id="development-committers"></term>
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<listitem>
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<para>The <link linkend="staff-committers">committers</link> are the
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people who have <emphasis>write</emphasis> access to the CVS tree,
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and are thus authorized to make modifications to the FreeBSD
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source (the term “committer” comes from the
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&man.cvs.1; <command>commit</command> command, which is used
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to bring new changes into the CVS repository). The best way of
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making submissions for review by the committers list is to use the
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&man.send-pr.1; command, though if something appears to be
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jammed in the system then you may also reach them by sending mail
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to <email>committers@FreeBSD.org</email>.</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>The FreeBSD core team<anchor id="development-core"></term>
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<listitem>
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<para>The <link linkend="staff-core">FreeBSD core team</link> would
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be equivalent to the board of directors if the FreeBSD Project
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were a company. The primary task of the core team is to make sure
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the project, as a whole, is in good shape and is heading in the
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right directions. Inviting dedicated and responsible developers
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to join our group of committers is one of the functions of the
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core team, as is the recruitment of new core team members as
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others move on. Most current members of the core team started as
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committers whose addiction to the project got the better of
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them.</para>
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<para>Some core team members also have specific <link
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linkend="staff-who">areas of responsibility</link>, meaning that
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they are committed to ensuring that some large portion of the
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system works as advertised.</para>
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<note>
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<para>Most members of the core team are volunteers when it comes
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to FreeBSD development and do not benefit from the project
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financially, so “commitment” should also not be
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misconstrued as meaning “guaranteed support.” The
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“board of directors” analogy above is not actually
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very accurate, and it may be more suitable to say that these are
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|
the people who gave up their lives in favor of FreeBSD against
|
|
their better judgement! <!-- smiley
|
|
--><emphasis>;)</emphasis></para>
|
|
</note>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
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|
|
|
<varlistentry>
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<term>Outside contributors</term>
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|
|
|
<listitem>
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|
<para>Last, but definitely not least, the largest group of
|
|
developers are the users themselves who provide feedback and
|
|
bug-fixes to us on an almost constant basis. The primary way of
|
|
keeping in touch with FreeBSD's more non-centralized development
|
|
is to subscribe to the &a.hackers; (see <link
|
|
linkend="eresources-mail">mailing list info</link>) where such
|
|
things are discussed.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para><link linkend="contrib-additional">The list</link> of those
|
|
who have contributed something which made its way into our source
|
|
tree is a long and growing one, so why not join it by contributing
|
|
something back to FreeBSD today? <!-- smiley
|
|
--><emphasis>:-)</emphasis></para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Providing code is not the only way of contributing to the
|
|
project; for a more complete list of things that need doing,
|
|
please refer to the <link linkend="contrib">how to
|
|
contribute</link> section in this handbook.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
</variablelist>
|
|
|
|
<para>In summary, our development model is organized as a loose set of
|
|
concentric circles. The centralized model is designed for the
|
|
convenience of the <emphasis>users</emphasis> of FreeBSD, who are
|
|
thereby provided with an easy way of tracking one central code base, not
|
|
to keep potential contributors out! Our desire is to present a stable
|
|
operating system with a large set of coherent <link
|
|
linkend="ports">application programs</link> that the users can easily
|
|
install and use, and this model works very well in accomplishing
|
|
that.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>All we ask of those who would join us as FreeBSD developers is some
|
|
of the same dedication its current people have to its continued
|
|
success!</para>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
<sect1 id="relnotes">
|
|
<title>About the Current Release</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>FreeBSD is a freely available, full source 4.4BSD-Lite2 based release
|
|
for Intel i386/i486/Pentium/PentiumPro/Pentium II (or compatible) and DEC
|
|
Alpha based computer systems. It is based primarily on software from U.C.
|
|
Berkeley's CSRG group, with some enhancements from NetBSD, OpenBSD, 386BSD,
|
|
and the Free Software Foundation.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Since our release of FreeBSD 2.0 in late 94, the performance,
|
|
feature set, and stability of FreeBSD has improved dramatically. The
|
|
largest change is a revamped virtual memory system with a merged VM/file
|
|
buffer cache that not only increases performance, but reduces FreeBSD's
|
|
memory footprint, making a 5MB configuration a more acceptable minimum.
|
|
Other enhancements include full NIS client and server support,
|
|
transaction TCP support, dial-on-demand PPP, an improved SCSI subsystem,
|
|
ISDN support, support for ATM, FDDI and Fast Ethernet (100Mbit)
|
|
adapters, improved support for the Adaptec 2940 (WIDE and narrow) and
|
|
many hundreds of bug fixes.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We have also taken the comments and suggestions of many of our users
|
|
to heart and have attempted to provide what we hope is a more sane and
|
|
easily understood installation process. Your feedback on this
|
|
(constantly evolving) process is especially welcome!</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In addition to the base distributions, FreeBSD offers a new ported
|
|
software collection with hundreds of commonly sought-after programs. At
|
|
the end of April 1999 there were more than 2300 ports! The list of
|
|
ports ranges from http (WWW) servers, to games, languages, editors and
|
|
almost everything in between. The entire ports collection requires
|
|
approximately 50MB of storage, all ports being expressed as
|
|
“deltas” to their original sources. This makes it much
|
|
easier for us to update ports, and greatly reduces the disk space
|
|
demands made by the older 1.0 ports collection. To compile a port, you
|
|
simply change to the directory of the program you wish to install, type
|
|
<command>make all</command> followed by <command>make install</command>
|
|
after successful compilation and let the system do the rest. The full
|
|
original distribution for each port you build is retrieved dynamically
|
|
off the CDROM or a local ftp site, so you need only enough disk space to
|
|
build the ports you want. (Almost) every port is also provided as a
|
|
pre-compiled “package” which can be installed with a simple
|
|
command (pkg_add) by those who do not wish to compile their own ports
|
|
from source.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>A number of additional documents which you may find very helpful in
|
|
the process of installing and using FreeBSD may now also be found in the
|
|
<filename>/usr/share/doc</filename> directory on any machine running
|
|
FreeBSD 2.1 or later. You may view the locally installed manuals with
|
|
any HTML capable browser using the following URLs:</para>
|
|
|
|
<variablelist>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term>The FreeBSD handbook</term>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><ulink
|
|
URL="file:/usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook.html">file:/usr/share/doc/handbook/handbook.html</ulink></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term>The FreeBSD FAQ</term>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para><ulink
|
|
URL="file:/usr/share/doc/FAQ/FAQ.html">file:/usr/share/doc/FAQ/FAQ.html</ulink></para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
</variablelist>
|
|
|
|
<para>You can also visit the master (and most frequently updated)
|
|
copies at <ulink
|
|
URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org">http://www.FreeBSD.org</ulink>.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The core of FreeBSD does not contain DES code which would inhibit
|
|
its being exported outside the United States. There is an add-on
|
|
package to the core distribution, for use only in the United States,
|
|
that contains the programs that normally use DES. The auxiliary
|
|
packages provided separately can be used by anyone. A freely (from
|
|
outside the U.S.) exportable European distribution of DES for our
|
|
non-U.S. users also exists and is described in the <ulink
|
|
URL="../FAQ/FAQ.html">FreeBSD FAQ</ulink>.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If password security for FreeBSD is all you need, and you have no
|
|
requirement for copying encrypted passwords from different hosts (Suns,
|
|
DEC machines, etc) into FreeBSD password entries, then FreeBSD's MD5
|
|
based security may be all you require! We feel that our default security
|
|
model is more than a match for DES, and without any messy export issues
|
|
to deal with. If you are outside (or even inside) the U.S., give it a
|
|
try!</para>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
</chapter>
|
|
|
|
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