diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/article.sgml')
| -rw-r--r-- | en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/article.sgml | 563 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 563 deletions
diff --git a/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/article.sgml b/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/article.sgml deleted file mode 100644 index a3bf0ff5ea..0000000000 --- a/en_US.ISO_8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/article.sgml +++ /dev/null @@ -1,563 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V3.1-Based Extension//EN" [ -<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN"> -%man; -]> - -<article> - <artheader> - <title>How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing - list</title> - - <author> - <firstname>Greg</firstname> - <surname>Lehey</surname> - - <affiliation> - <address><email>grog@FreeBSD.org</email></address> - </affiliation> - </author> - - <pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate> - - <abstract> - <para>This document provides useful information for people looking to - prepare an e-mail to the FreeBSD-questions mailing list. Advice and - hints are given that will maximise the chance that the reader will - receive useful replies.</para> - - <para>This document is regularly posted to the FreeBSD-questions mailing - list.</para> - </abstract> - </artheader> - - <sect1> - <title id="Introduction">Introduction</title> - - <para><literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> is a mailing list maintained by - the FreeBSD project to help people who have questions about the normal - use of FreeBSD. Another group, <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>, - discusses more advanced questions such as future development - work.</para> - - <note> - <para>The term <quote>hacker</quote> has nothing to do with breaking - into other people's computers. The correct term for the latter - activity is <quote>cracker</quote>, but the popular press hasn't found - out yet. The FreeBSD hackers disapprove strongly of cracking - security, and have nothing to do with it. For a longer description of - hackers, see Eric Raymond's <ulink - url="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How To Become A Hacker</ulink></para> - </note> - - <para>This is a regular posting aimed to help both those seeking advice - from FreeBSD-questions (the <quote>newcomers</quote>), and also those - who answer the questions (the <quote>hackers</quote>).</para> - - <para>Inevitably there is some friction, which stems from the different - viewpoints of the two groups. The newcomers accuse the hackers of being - arrogant, stuck-up, and unhelpful, while the hackers accuse the - newcomers of being stupid, unable to read plain English, and expecting - everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. Of course, there's - an element of truth in both these claims, but for the most part these - viewpoints come from a sense of frustration.</para> - - <para>In this document, I'd like to do something to relieve this - frustration and help everybody get better results from - FreeBSD-questions. In the following section, I recommend how to submit - a question; after that, we'll look at how to answer one.</para> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title id="subscribe">How to subscribe to FreeBSD-questions</title> - - <para>FreeBSD-questions is a mailing list, so you need mail access. Send - a mail message to <email>majordomo@FreeBSD.org</email> with the single - line:</para> - - <literallayout class="monospaced">subscribe FreeBSD-questions</literallayout> - - <para><application>majordomo</application> is an automatic program which - maintains the mailing list, so you don't need a subject line. If your - mailer complains, however, you can put anything you like in the subject - line.</para> - - <para>When you get the reply from <application>majordomo</application> - telling you the details of the list, <emphasis>please save - it</emphasis>. If you ever should want to leave the list, you'll need - the information there. See the next section for more details.</para> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title id="unsubscribe">How to unsubscribe from FreeBSD-questions</title> - - <para>When you subscribed to FreeBSD-questions, you got a welcome message - from <email>Majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG</email>. In this message, amongst - other things, it told you how to unsubscribe. Here's a typical - message:</para> - - <literallayout class="monospaced">Welcome to the freebsd-questions mailing list! - -If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list, you can send -mail to "Majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG" with the following command in the body -of your email message: - -unsubscribe freebsd-questions Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.de> - -Here's the general information for the list you've subscribed to, -in case you don't already have it: - -FREEBSD-QUESTIONS User questions -This is the mailing list for questions about FreeBSD. -You should not send "how to" questions to the technical lists unless -you consider the question to be pretty technical.</literallayout> - - <para>Normally, unsubscribing is even simpler than the message suggests: - you don't need to specify your mail ID unless it is different from the - one which you specified when you subscribed.</para> - - <para>If Majordomo replies and tells you (incorrectly) that you're not on - the list, this may mean one of two things:</para> - - <orderedlist> - <listitem> - <para>You have changed your mail ID since you subscribed. That's - where keeping the original message from <literal>majordomo</literal> - comes in handy. For example, the sample message above shows my mail - ID as <literal>grog@lemis.de</literal>. Since then, I have changed - it to <literal>grog@lemis.com</literal>. If I were to try to remove - <literal>grog@lemis.com</literal> from the list, it would fail: I - would have to specify the name with which I joined.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>You're subscribed to a mailing list which is subscribed to - <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>. If that's the case, you'll - have to figure out which one it is and get your name taken off that - one. If you're not sure which one it might be, check the headers of - the messages you receive from freebsd-questions: maybe there's a - clue there.</para> - </listitem> - </orderedlist> - - <para>If you've done all this, and you still can't figure out what's going - on, send a message to <email>Postmaster@FreeBSD.org</email>, and he will - sort things out for you. <emphasis>Don't</emphasis> send a message to - FreeBSD-questions: they can't help you.</para> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title id="askwho">Should I ask <literal>-questions</literal> or - <literal>-hackers</literal>?</title> - - <para>Two mailing lists handle general questions about FreeBSD, - <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> and - <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>. In some cases, it's not really - clear which group you should ask. The following criteria should help - for 99% of all questions, however:</para> - - <orderedlist> - <listitem> - <para>If the question is of a general nature, ask - <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>. Examples might be questions - about intstalling FreeBSD or the use of a particular UNIX - utility.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you're not sure, - or you don't know how to look for it, send the message to - <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If the question relates to a bug, and you're - <emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it's a bug (for example, you can - pinpoint the place in the code where it happens, and you maybe have - a fix), then send the message to - <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If the question relates to enhancements to FreeBSD, and you - can make suggestions about how to implement them, then send the - message to <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para> - </listitem> - </orderedlist> - - <para>There are also a number of other specialized mailing lists, for - example <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>, which caters to the interests of - ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who run FreeBSD. If you happen to be - an ISP, this doesn't mean you should automatically send your questions - to <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>. The criteria above still apply, and - it's in your interest to stick to them, since you're more likely to get - good results that way.</para> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title id="submit">How to submit a question</title> - - <para>When submitting a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider the - following points:</para> - - <itemizedlist> - <listitem> - <para> Remember that nobody gets paid for answering a FreeBSD - question. They do it of their own free will. You can influence this - free will positively by submitting a well-formulated question - supplying as much relevant information as possible. You can - influence this free will negatively by submitting an incomplete, - illegible, or rude question. It's perfectly possible to send a - message to FreeBSD-questions and not get an answer even if you - follow these rules. It's much more possible to not get an answer if - you don't. In the rest of this document, we'll look at how to get - the most out of your question to FreeBSD-questions.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Not everybody who answers FreeBSD questions reads every message: - they look at the subject line and decide whether it interests them. - Clearly, it's in your interest to specify a subject. ``FreeBSD - problem'' or ``Help'' aren't enough. If you provide no subject at - all, many people won't bother reading it. If your subject isn't - specific enough, the people who can answer it may not read - it.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Format your message so that it is legible, and - PLEASE DON'T SHOUT!!!!!. We appreciate that a lot of people don't - speak English as their first language, and we try to make - allowances for that, but it's really painful to try to read a - message written full of typos or without any line breaks.</para> - - <para>Don't underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted mail - message has, not just on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list. - Your mail message is all people see of you, and if it's poorly - formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt, or full of - errors, it will give people a poor impression of you.</para> - - <para>A lot of badly formatted messages come from - <ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers or badly - configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers are known to - send out badly formatted messages without you finding out about - them:</para> - - <itemizedlist> - <listitem> - <para>cc:Mail</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Eudora</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>exmh</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Microsoft Exchange</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Microsoft Internet Mail</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Microsoft Outlook</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Netscape</para> - </listitem> - </itemizedlist> - - <para>As you can see, the mailers in the Microsoft world are frequent - offenders. If at all possible, use a UNIX mailer. If you must use a - mailer under Microsoft environments, make sure it is set up - correctly. Try not to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people - use mailers which don't get on very well with - <acronym>MIME</acronym>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly. This may - seem a little silly, since your message still gets there, but many - of the people you are trying to reach get several hundred messages a - day. They frequently sort the incoming messages by subject and by - date, and if your message doesn't come before the first answer, they - may assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Don't include unrelated questions in the same message. Firstly, - a long message tends to scare people off, and secondly, it's more - difficult to get all the people who can answer all the questions to - read the message.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Specify as much information as possible. This is a difficult - area, and we need to expand on what information you need to submit, - but here's a start:</para> - - <itemizedlist> - <listitem> - <para>In nearly every case, it's important to know the version of - FreeBSD you're running. This is particularly the case for - FreeBSD-CURRENT, where you should also specify the date of the - sources, though of course you shouldn't be sending questions - about -CURRENT to FreeBSD-questions.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem><para>With any problem which <emphasis>could</emphasis> be - hardware related, tell us about your hardware. In case of - doubt, assume it's possible that it's hardware. What kind of - CPU are you using? How fast? What motherboard? How much - memory? What peripherals?</para> - - <para>There's a judgement call here, of course, but the output of - the &man.dmesg.8; command can frequently be very useful, since it - tells not just what hardware you're running, but what version of - FreeBSD as well.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If you get error messages, don't say <quote>I get error - messages</quote>, say (for example) <quote>I get the error - message 'No route to host'</quote>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If your system panics, don't say <quote>My system - panicked</quote>, say (for example) <quote>my system panicked - with the message 'free vnode isn't'</quote>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If you have difficulty installing FreeBSD, please tell us - what hardware you have. In particular, it's important to know - the IRQs and I/O addresses of the boards installed in your - machine.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If you have difficulty getting PPP to run, describe the - configuration. Which version of PPP do you use? What kind of - authentication do you have? Do you have a static or dynamic IP - address? What kind of messages do you get in the log - file?</para> - </listitem> - </itemizedlist> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the output of - programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console messages, which usually - appear in <filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Don't try to copy - this information by typing it in again; it's a real pain, and you're - bound to make a mistake. To send log file contents, either make a - copy of the file and use an editor to trim the information to what - is relevant, or cut and paste into your message. For the output of - programs like &man.dmesg.8;, redirect the output to a file and - include that. For example,</para> - - <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.out</userinput></screen> - - <para>This redirects the information to the file - <filename>/tmp/dmesg.out</filename>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If you do all this, and you still don't get an answer, there - could be other reasons. For example, the problem is so complicated - that nobody knows the answer, or the person who does know the answer - was offline. If you don't get an answer after, say, a week, it - might help to re-send the message. If you don't get an answer to - your second message, though, you're probably not going to get one - from this forum. Resending the same message again and again will - only make you unpopular.</para> - </listitem> - </itemizedlist> - - <para>To summarize, let's assume you know the answer to the following - question (yes, it's the same one in each case <literal>:-)</literal>. - You choose which of these two questions you would be more prepared to - answer:</para> - - <example> - <title>Message 1</title> - - <literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: HELP!!?!?? -I just can't get hits damn silly FereBSD system to -workd, and Im really good at this tsuff, but I have never seen -anythign sho difficult to install, it jst wont work whatever I try -so why don't y9ou guys tell me what I doing wrong.</literallayout> - </example> - - <example> - <title>Message 2</title> - - <literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: Problems installing FreeBSD - -I've just got the FreeBSD 2.1.5 CD-ROM from Walnut Creek, and I'm having a lot -of difficulty installing it. I have a 66 MHz 486 with 16 MB of -memory and an Adaptec 1540A SCSI board, a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball -disk and a Toshiba 3501XA CD-ROM drive. The installation works just -fine, but when I try to reboot the system, I get the message -``Missing Operating System''.</literallayout> - </example> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title 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're talking about. Don't 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, didn't you?). 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 - <ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</ulink>, can - <emphasis>thread</emphasis> messages, showing the exact - relationships between the messages.</para> - </listitem> - </orderedlist> - </sect1> - - <sect1> - <title 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'll see the question followed by any answers, all - together.</para> - - <para>If somebody has already answered it, it doesn't automatically - mean that you shouldn't 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 don't help - much, although there are exceptions, like when somebody is - describing a problem he's having, and he doesn't know whether it's - his fault or whether there's 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 doesn't express himself - very well. Even with the best understanding of the system, it's - easy to send a reply which doesn't answer the question. This - doesn't help: you'll leave the person who submitted the question - more frustrated or confused than ever. If nobody else answers, and - you're 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 - don't know if this is correct, but since nobody else has - replied, why don't you try replacing your ATAPI CD-ROM with - a frog?</quote>.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>Unless there's 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're 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 don't overdo it. It should still be possible for - somebody who didn't read the original message to understand what - you're 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's 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 doesn't do it - automatically, you should do it manually.</para> - </listitem> - - <listitem> - <para>If the submitter didn't 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's appropriate to say what you did and why you - did it, but try not to be rude. If you find you can't answer - without being rude, don't 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> - -<!-- - Local Variables: - mode: sgml - sgml-indent-data: t - sgml-omittag: nil - sgml-always-quote-attributes: t - End: ---> |