<!-- Copyright (c) 1998, 1999 Nik Clayton, All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source (SGML DocBook) and 'compiled' forms
(SGML HTML, PDF, PostScript, RTF and so forth) with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:
1. Redistributions of source code (SGML DocBook) must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified.
2. Redistributions in compiled form (transformed to other DTDs,
converted to PDF, PostScript, RTF and other formats) must reproduce
the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
provided with the distribution.
THIS DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED BY NIK CLAYTON "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL NIK CLAYTON BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
(INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR
SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
$FreeBSD$
-->
<chapter id="overview">
<title>Overview</title>
<para>Welcome to the FreeBSD Documentation Project. Good quality
documentation is very important to the success of FreeBSD, and the
FreeBSD Documentation Project (FDP) is how a lot of that documentation
is produced. Your contributions are very valuable.</para>
<para>This document's main purpose is to clearly explain <emphasis>how
the FDP is organised</emphasis>, <emphasis>how to write and submit
documentation to the FDP</emphasis>, and <emphasis>how to
effectively use the tools available to you when writing
documentation</emphasis>.</para>
<para>Every one is welcome to join the FDP. There is no minimum
membership requirements, no quota of documentation you need to
produce per month. All you need to do is subscribe to the
<email>freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org</email> mailing list.</para>
<para>After you have finished reading this document you should:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Know which documentation is maintained by the FDP.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Be able to read and understand the SGML source code for the
documentation maintained by the FDP.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Be able to make changes to the documentation.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Be able to submit your changes back for review and eventual
inclusion in the FreeBSD documentation.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<sect1>
<title>The FreeBSD Documentation Set</title>
<para>The FDP is responsible for four categories of FreeBSD
documentation.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Manual pages</term>
<listitem>
<para>The English language system manual pages are not written by
the FDP, as they are part of the base system. However, the FDP can
(and has) re-worded parts of existing manual pages to make them
clearer, or to correct inaccuracies.</para>
<para>The translation teams are responsible for translating the
system manual pages in to different languages. These translations
are kept within the FDP.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>FAQ</term>
<listitem>
<para>The FAQ aims to address (in short question and answer format)
questions that are asked, or should be asked, on the various
mailing lists and newsgroups devoted to FreeBSD. The format does
not permit long and comprehensive answers.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Handbook</term>
<listitem>
<para>The Handbook aims to be the comprehensive on-line resource and
reference for FreeBSD users.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Web site</term>
<listitem>
<para>This is the main FreeBSD presence on the World Wide Web,
visible at <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/">http://www.FreeBSD.org/</ulink>
and many mirrors around the world. The web site is many people's
first exposure to FreeBSD.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>These four groups of documentation are all available in the
FreeBSD CVS tree. This means that the logs and changes to these
files are visible to anyone, and anyone can use a program such as
<application>CVSup</application> or
<application>CTM</application> to keep their own local copies of
this documentation.</para>
<para>In addition, many people have written tutorials or other web
sites relating to FreeBSD. Some of these are stored in the CVS
repository as well (where the author has agreed to this). In
other cases the author has decided to keep their documentation
separate from the main FreeBSD repository. The FDP endeavours to
provide links to as much of this documentation as
possible.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Before you start</title>
<para>This document assumes that you already know:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>How to maintain an up-to-date local copy of the FreeBSD
documentation. Either by maintaining a local copy of the
FreeBSD CVS repository (using <application>CVS</application>
and either <application>CVSup</application> or
<application>CTM</application>) or by using
<application>CVSup</application> to download just a
<emphasis>checked-out</emphasis> copy.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to download and install new software using either the
FreeBSD Ports system or &man.pkg.add.1;.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<!--
Local Variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-declaration: "../chapter.decl"
sgml-indent-data: t
sgml-omittag: nil
sgml-always-quote-attributes: t
sgml-parent-document: ("../book.sgml" "part" "chapter")
End:
-->
