path: root/FAQ/preface.sgml

<!-- $Id: preface.sgml,v 1.24 1998-12-04 22:17:36 billf Exp $ -->
<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->

  <sect>
    <heading>Preface<label id="preface"></heading>

    <p>Welcome to the FreeBSD 2.X FAQ!

    <sect1>
      <heading>What is the purpose of this FAQ?</heading>

      <p>As is usual with Usenet FAQs, this document aims to cover the most
      frequently asked questions concerning the FreeBSD operating system
      (and of course answer them!).  Although originally intended to reduce
      bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked over and over
      again, FAQs have become recognized as valuable information resources.

      <p>Every effort has been made to make this FAQ as informative as
      possible; if you have any suggestions as to how it may be improved,
      please feel free to mail them to the <url url="mailto:FAQ@FreeBSD.ORG"
      name="FAQ maintainer">.

    <sect1>
      <heading>What is FreeBSD?</heading>

      <p>Briefly, FreeBSD 2.X is a UN*X-like operating system based on
      U.C. Berkeley's 4.4BSD-lite release for the i386 platform.  It is
      also based indirectly on William Jolitz's port of U.C. Berkeley's
      Net/2 to the i386, known as 386BSD, though very little of the 386BSD
      code remains.  A fuller description of what FreeBSD is and how
      it can work for you may be found on the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org"
      name="FreeBSD home page">.

      <p>FreeBSD is used by companies, Internet Service Providers, researchers,
      computer professionals, students and home users all over the world
      in their work, education and recreation.  See some of them in the
      <url url="../gallery/gallery.html" name="FreeBSD Gallery.">

      <p>For more detailed information on FreeBSD, please see the
      <url url="../handbook/handbook.html" name="FreeBSD Handbook.">

    <sect1>
      <heading>What are the goals of FreeBSD?</heading>

      <p>The goals of the FreeBSD Project are to provide software that may
      be used for any purpose and without strings attached.  Many of us
      have a significant investment in the code (and project) and would
      certainly not mind a little financial compensation now and then,
      but we're definitely not prepared to insist on it.  We believe
      that our first and foremost "mission" is to provide code to any
      and all comers, and for whatever purpose, so that the code gets
      the widest possible use and provides the widest possible benefit.
      This is, we believe, one of the most fundamental goals of Free
      Software and one that we enthusiastically support.

      <p>That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU Public License
      (GPL) or GNU Library Public License (GLPL) comes with slightly more
      strings attached, though at least on the side of enforced
      access rather than the usual opposite.  Due to the additional
      complexities that can evolve in the commercial use of GPL software,
      we do, however, endeavor to replace such software with submissions
      under the more relaxed BSD copyright whenever possible.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Why is it called FreeBSD?</heading>

      <p>
      <itemize>
        <item>It may be used free of charge, even by commercial users.

        <item>Full source for the operating system is freely available, and
        the minimum possible restrictions have been placed upon its
        use, distribution and incorporation into other work (commercial
        or non-commercial).

        <item>Anyone who has an improvement and/or bug fix is free to submit
        their code and have it added to the source tree (subject to
        one or two obvious provisos).
      </itemize>

      <p>For those of our readers whose first language is not English, it
      may be worth pointing out that the word ``free'' is being used in two
      ways here, one meaning ``at no cost'', the other meaning ``you can do
      whatever you like''.  Apart from one or two things you <tt /cannot/
      do with the FreeBSD code, for example pretending you wrote it, you
      really can do whatever you like with it.

    <sect1>
      <heading>What is the latest version of FreeBSD?</heading>

      <p>Version <url url="ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/2.2.8-RELEASE"
      name="2.2.8"> is the latest <em>stable</em> version; it was released
      in December, 1998.  This is also the latest <em>release</em> version.

      <p>Briefly explained, <bf>-stable</bf> is aimed at the ISP or other
      corporate user who wants stability and a low change count over
      the wizzy new features of the latest release.  At the moment, these
      versions are one and the same, but it shouldn't be long before the
      <bf>-current</bf> branch is polished enough for general release.

      <p>This is not to say that a 3.0-current snapshot is unusable for
      business services, and many people who need some 3.0 specific feature
      (newer compiler technology, faster networking code, etc) have decided
      to take a chance with it with very good results.  We simply do not
      wish to "certify" 3.0 as mission-worthy until it's been better
      shaken-out.

    <sect1>
      <heading>What is FreeBSD-current?<label id="current"></heading>

      <p><url url="../handbook/current.html" name="FreeBSD-current"> is the
      development version of the operating system, which will in due
      course become 3.0.1-RELEASE.  As such, it is really only of interest
      to developers working on the system and die-hard hobbyists.
      See the <url url="../handbook/current.html" name="relevant section">
      in the <url url="../handbook/handbook.html" name="handbook"> for
      details on running -current.

      <p>If you are not familiar with the operating system or are not
      capable of identifying the difference between a real problem and
      a temporary problem, you should not use FreeBSD-current.  This
      branch sometimes evolves quite quickly and can be un-buildable
      for a number of days at a time.  People that use FreeBSD-current
      are expected to be able to analyze any problems and only report them
      if they are deemed to be mistakes rather than ``glitches''.  Questions
      such as ``make world produces some error about groups'' on the
      -current mailing list are sometimes treated with contempt.

      <p>Every now and again, a <url url="../releases/snapshots.html"
      name="snapshot"> release is also made of this -current development
      code, CDROM distributions of the occasional snapshot even now being
      made available. The goals behind each snapshot release are:

      <itemize>
        <item>To test the latest version of the installation software.

        <item>To give people who would like to run -current but who don't
        have the time and/or bandwidth to follow it on a day-to-day
        basis an easy way of bootstrapping it onto their systems.

        <item>To preserve a fixed reference point for the code in question,
        just in case we break something really badly later. (Although
        CVS normally prevents anything horrible like this happening :)

        <item>To ensure that any new features in need of testing have the
        greatest possible number of potential testers.
      </itemize>

      <p>No claims are made that any snapshot can be considered
      ``production quality'' for any purpose.  For stability
      and tested mettle, you will have to stick to full releases.

      <p>Snapshot releases are directly available from <url
      url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"> and are generated,
      on the average, once a day for both the 3.0-current and 2.2-stable
      branches.

    <sect1>
      <heading>What is the FreeBSD-stable concept?</heading>

      <p>Back when FreeBSD 2.0.5 was released, we decided to branch FreeBSD
      development into two parts.  One branch was named <url
      url="../handbook/stable.html" name="-stable">, with the
      intention that only well-tested bug fixes and small incremental
      enhancements would be made to it (for Internet Service Providers
      and other commercial enterprises for whom sudden shifts or
      experimental features are quite undesirable).  The other branch was
      <url url="../handbook/current.html" name="-current">, which
      essentially has been one unbroken line leading towards 3.0-RELEASE
      (and beyond) since 2.0 was released. If a little ASCII art would
      help, this is how it looks:

<verb>
                 2.0
                  |
                  |
                  |  [2.1-stable]
 *BRANCH*       2.0.5 -> 2.1 -> 2.1.5 -> 2.1.6 -> 2.1.7.1  [2.1-stable ends]
                  |                            (Mar 1997)
                  |
                  |
                  |  [2.2-stable]
 *BRANCH*       2.2.1 -> 2.2.2-RELEASE -> 2.2.5 -> 2.2.6 -> 2.2.7 -> 2.2.8 [end]
                  |       (Mar 1997)    (Oct 97) (Apr 98) (Jul 98) (Dec 98)
                  |
                  |
               3.0-SNAPs  (started Q1 1997)
                  |
                  |
             3.0.0-RELEASE (Oct 1998)
                  |
                  |  [3.0-stable]
 *BRANCH*       3.0.1 (Feb 1999) -> ... future 3.0.x releases ...
                  |
                  |
                 \|/
                  +
          [3.1-current continues]
</verb>

      <p>The -current branch is slowly progressing towards 3.0.1 and beyond,
      the previous 2.2-stable branch having just retired with the release
      of 2.2.8.  3.0-current will continue to be where the active development
      takes place up until the actual release of 3.0.1 in early 1999. At that
      point, 3.0 will become yet another branch and 3.1-current will become
      the next "current branch".

    <sect1>
      <heading>When are FreeBSD releases made?</heading>

      <p>As a general principle, the FreeBSD core team only release a new
      version of FreeBSD when they believe that there are sufficient new
      features and/or bug fixes to justify one, and are satisfied that the
      changes made have settled down sufficiently to avoid compromising the
      stability of the release.  Many users regard this caution as one of
      the best things about FreeBSD, although it can be a little
      frustrating when waiting for all the latest goodies to become
      available...

      <p>Releases are made about every 4 months on average.

      <p>For people needing (or wanting) a little more excitement, there are
      SNAPs released more frequently, particularly during the month or so
      leading up to a release.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Is FreeBSD only available for PCs ?</heading>

      <p>FreeBSD 3.x currently runs on the <url
      url="../alpha/alpha.html" name="DEC Alpha"> as well as the
      x86 architecture.  Some interest has also been expressed in a
      SPARC port, but details on this project are not yet clear.

      If your machine has a different architecture and
      you need something right now, we suggest you look at
      <url url="http://www.netbsd.org/" name="NetBSD"> or
      <url url="http://www.openbsd.org/" name="OpenBSD">.

    <sect1>
      <heading> Who is responsible for FreeBSD?</heading>

      <p>The key decisions concerning the FreeBSD project, such as the
      overall direction of the project and who is allowed to add code to
      the source tree, are made by a <url url="../handbook/staff:core.html"
      name="core team"> of some 15 people. There is a much larger team of
      over 100 <url url="../handbook/staff:committers.html"
      name="committers"> who are authorized to make changes directly to the
      FreeBSD source tree.

      <p>However, most non-trivial changes are discussed in advance in the
      <ref id="mailing" name="mailing lists">, and there are no restrictions
      on who may take part in the discussion.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Where can I get FreeBSD?<label id="where-get"></heading>

      <p>Every significant release of FreeBSD is available via anonymous ftp
      from the <url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/"
      name="FreeBSD FTP site">:

      <itemize>
        <item>For the current 2.2-stable release, 2.2.8R see the
        <url url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.ORG/pub/FreeBSD/2.2.8-RELEASE/"
        name="2.2.8-RELEASE"> directory.

        <item>For the current 3.0-current release, 3.0-SNAP, see the
        <url url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/" name="3.0"> directory.

        <item><url url="ftp://releng22.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"
        name="2.2 Snapshot"> releases are made once a day along the
        RELENG_2_2 branch (post 2.2.8) as it slowly winds down in
        maintenance mode.  The RELENG_2_2 branch is currently being carefully
        maintained by the legacy support folks and no changes other than
        those strictly necessary for security or reliability enhancements
        are now made.

        <item><url url="ftp://current.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/"
        name="3.0 Snapshot">releases are also made once a day for the
        <ref id="current" name="-current"> branch, these being of service
        purely to bleeding-edge testers and developers.
      </itemize>

      <p>FreeBSD is also available via CDROM, from the following place(s):

      <p>Walnut Creek CDROM<newline>
      4041 Pike Lane, Suite F<newline>
      Concord, CA  94520  USA<newline>
      Orders:     +1 800 786-9907<newline>
      Questions:  +1 925 674-0783<newline>
      FAX:        +1 925 674-0821<newline>
      email:      <url url="mailto:orders@cdrom.com" name="WC Orders address">
                  <newline>
      WWW:        <url url="http://www.cdrom.com/" name="WC Home page">
                  <newline>

      <p>In Australia, you may find it at:

      <p>Advanced Multimedia Distributors<newline>
      Factory 1/1 Ovata Drive<newline>
      Tullamarine, Melbourne<newline>
      Victoria<newline>
      Australia<newline>
      Voice: +61 3 9338 6777<newline>

      CDROM Support BBS<newline>
      17 Irvine St<newline>
      Peppermint Grove  WA 6011<newline>
      Voice: +61 9 385-3793<newline>
      Fax:   +61 9 385-2360<newline>

      And in the UK:

      The Public Domain &amp; Shareware Library<newline>
      Winscombe House, Beacon Rd<newline>
      Crowborough<newline>
      Sussex. TN6 1UL<newline>
      Voice: +44 1892 663-298<newline>
      Fax:   +44 1892 667-473<newline>

    <sect1>
      <heading>
        Where do I find info on the FreeBSD mailing lists?<label id="mailing">
      </heading>

      <p>You can find full information in the <url
      url="../handbook/eresources:mail.html"
      name="Handbook entry on mailing-lists.">

    <sect1>
      <heading>What FreeBSD news groups are available?</heading>

      <p>You can find full information in the<url
      url="../handbook/eresources:news.html"
      name="Handbook entry on newsgroups.">

    <sect1>
      <heading>
        Are there FreeBSD IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels?
      </heading>

      <p>Yes, most major IRC networks host a FreeBSD chat
      channel:

      <itemize>
        <item>Channel <tt>&num;FreeBSD</tt> on EFNet provides
        technical discussions on FreeBSD and often advanced solutions
	involving it. Questions that are more then adequately addressed
	in the FAQ and Handbook are heavily discouraged.
	Available at server <tt>irc.chat.org</tt>.

        <item>Channel <tt>&num;FreeBSD</tt> on DALNET
	is available at <tt>irc.dal.net</tt> in the US and 
        <tt>irc.eu.dal.net</tt> in Europe.

        <item>Channel <tt>&num;FreeBSD</tt> on UNDERNET is
	available at <tt>us.undernet.org</tt> in the US and 
	<tt>eu.undernet.org</tt> in Europe.

        <item>Finally, you can also join <tt>&num;FreeBSD</tt> on BSDNET,
        a smaller BSD only chat network, at <tt>irc.FreeBSD.org</tt>.

      </itemize>

      <p>Each of these channels are distinct and are not connected to
      each other.  Their chat styles also differ, so you may need to try 
      each to find one suited to your chat style.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Books on FreeBSD</heading>

      <p>There is a FreeBSD Documentation Project which you may contact (or
      even better, join) on the <tt>doc</tt> mailing list:
      <url url="mailto:freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG" 
      name="&lt;freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG&gt;">.
      This list is for discussion of the FreeBSD documentation.  For
      actual questions about FreeBSD, there is the <tt>questions</tt>
      mailing list:
      <url url="mailto:freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG"
           name="&lt;freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG&gt;">.

      <p>A FreeBSD ``handbook'' is available, and can be found as:
      <url url="../handbook/handbook.html" name="the FreeBSD Handbook">.
      Note that this is a work in progress, and so parts may be incomplete.

      <p>The definitive printed guide on FreeBSD is ``The Complete FreeBSD'',
      written by Greg Lehey and published by Walnut Creek CDROM Books.  Now
      in its second edition, the book contains 1,750 pages of install &
      system administration guidance, program setup help, and manual pages.
      The book (and current FreeBSD release) can be ordered from 
      <url url="http://www.cdrom.com" name="Walnut Creek">,
      <url url="http://www.cheapbytes.com" name="CheapBytes">, or at your
      favorite bookstore.  The ISBN is 1-57176-227-2.

      <p>However, as FreeBSD 2.2.X is based upon Berkeley 4.4BSD-Lite2, most
      of the 4.4BSD manuals are applicable to FreeBSD 2.2.X.  O'Reilly
      and Associates publishes these manuals:

      <itemize>
        <item>4.4BSD System Manager's Manual <newline>
        By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
        1st Edition June 1994, 804 pages <newline>
        <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-080-5" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-080-5 <newline>

        <item>4.4BSD User's Reference Manual <newline>
        By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
        1st Edition June 1994, 905 pages <newline>
        <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-075-9" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-075-9 <newline>

        <item>4.4BSD User's Supplementary Documents <newline>
        By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
        1st Edition July 1994, 712 pages <newline>
        <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-076-7" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-076-7 <newline>

        <item>4.4BSD Programmer's Reference Manual <newline>
        By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
        1st Edition June 1994, 886 pages <newline>
        <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-078-3" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-078-3 <newline>

        <item>4.4BSD Programmer's Supplementary Documents <newline>
        By Computer Systems Research Group, UC Berkeley <newline>
        1st Edition July 1994, 596 pages <newline>
        <url url="&isbn.amazon/1-56592-079-1" name="ISBN">: 1-56592-079-1 <newline>
      </itemize>

      <p>A description of these can be found via WWW as:

      <url url="http://gnn.com/gnn/bus/ora/category/bsd.html"
      name="4.4BSD books description">.  Due to poor sales, however, these
      manuals may be hard to get a hold of.

      <p>For a more in-depth look at the 4.4BSD kernel organization,
      you can't go wrong with:

      <p>McKusick, Marshall Kirk, Keith Bostic, Michael J Karels,
      and John Quarterman.<newline>

      <p><em>The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating
      System</em>.  Reading, Mass. : Addison-Wesley, 1996.<newline>
      <url url="&isbn.amazon/0-201-54979-4" name="ISBN"> 0-201-54979-4<newline>

      <p>A good book on system administration is:

      <p>Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Scott Seebass &amp; Trent R. Hein,<newline>
      ``Unix System Administration Handbook'', Prentice-Hall, 1995<newline>
      <url url="&isbn.amazon/0-13-151051-7" name="ISBN">: 0-13-151051-7<newline>

      <p><bf/NOTE/ make sure you get the second edition, with a red cover,
      instead of the first edition.

      <p>This book covers the basics, as well as TCP/IP, DNS, NFS,
      SLIP/PPP, sendmail, INN/NNTP, printing, etc..  It's expensive
      (approx. US&dollar;45-&dollar;55), but worth it.  It also
      includes a CDROM with the sources for various tools; most of
      these, however, are also on the FreeBSD 2.2.6R CDROM (and the
      FreeBSD CDROM often has newer versions).

    <sect1>
      <heading>How do I access your Problem Report database?</heading>

      <p>The Problem Report database of all open user change requests
      may be queried (or submitted to) by using our web-based PR
      <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html" name="submission">
      and <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr-summary.cgi"
      name="query"> interfaces.  The <em>send-pr(1)</em> command
      can also be used to submit problem reports and change requests via
      electronic mail.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Where can I get ASCII/PostScript versions of the FAQ?</heading>
      
      <p>The up-to-date FAQ is available from the FreeBSD Web Server or any
      mirror as PostScript and plain text (7 bit ASCII and 8-bit Latin1).

      <p>As PostScript (about 370KB):
      <itemize>
        <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ps" 
               name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ps">
      </itemize>
 
      <p>As ASCII text (about 220KB):
      <itemize>
         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ascii"
                name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.ascii">
      </itemize>

      <p>As ISO 8859-1 text (about 220KB):
      <itemize>
         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.latin1"
                name="http://www.freebsd.org/FAQ/FAQ.latin1">
      </itemize>

    <sect1>
      <heading>Where can I get ASCII/PostScript versions of the Handbook?</heading>
      
      <p>The up-to-date Handbook is available from the FreeBSD Web Server or any
      mirror as PostScript and plain text (7 bit ASCII and 8-bit Latin1).

      <p>As PostScript (about 1.7MB):
      <itemize>
        <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ps" 
               name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ps">
      </itemize>
 
      <p>As ASCII text (about 1080KB):
      <itemize>
         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ascii"
                name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.ascii">
      </itemize>

      <p>As ISO 8859-1 text (about 1080KB):
      <itemize>
         <item><url url="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.latin1"
                name="http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/handbook.latin1">
      </itemize>

    <sect1>
      <heading>The ASCII handbook isn't plain text!</heading>

      <p>True, the ASCII and Latin1 versions of the FAQ and Handbook aren't
      strictly plaintext; they contain underlines and overprints that
      assume the output is going directly to a dot matrix printer.  If you 
      need to reformat them to be human-readable, run the file through col:

      <verb>
          $ col -b < inputfile > outputfile
      </verb>

    <sect1>
      <heading>I'd like to become a FreeBSD Web mirror!</heading>

      <p>Certainly!  There are multiple ways to mirror the Web pages.

      <itemize>
         <item>Using CVSUP:  You can retrieve the formatted files using CVSUP
         from cvsup.freebsd.org.  Add this line to your cvsup file:

<verb>
www release=current hostname=/home base=/usr/local/etc/cvsup 
prefix=/usr/local/www/data/www.freebsd.org delete old use-rel-suffix

</verb>

         <item>Using rsync:  See <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/internal/mirror.html"
         name="the mirroring page"> for information.
         <item>Using ftp mirror:  You can download the FTP server's copy of
         the web site using your favorite ftp mirror tool.  Simply start at
         ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current/www.
     </itemize>

    <sect1>
      <heading>I'd like to translate the documentation into Friesian.</heading>

      <p>Well, we can't pay, but we might arrange a free CD or T-shirt and a 
      Contributor's Handbook entry if you submit a translation of the
      documentation.

    <sect1>
      <heading>Other sources of information.</heading>

      <p>The following newsgroups contain pertinent discussion for FreeBSD
      users:

      <itemize>
        <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce"
        name="comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce"> (moderated)

        <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc"
        name="comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc">

        <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd.misc" name="comp.unix.bsd.misc">
      </itemize>

      <p>Web resources:

      <itemize>
        <item>The <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/" name="FreeBSD Home Page">.

        <item><label id="pao">If you have a laptop, be sure and see
        <url url="http://www.jp.FreeBSD.org/PAO/"
        name="Tatsumi Hosokawa's Mobile Computing page"> in Japan.

        <item><label id="smp">For information on SMP (Symmetric
        MultiProcessing), please see the <url
        url="http://www.freebsd.org/~fsmp/SMP/SMP.html"
        name="SMP support page">.

        <item><label id="multimedia">For information on FreeBSD multimedia
        applications, please see the <url
        url="http://www.freebsd.org/~faulkner/multimedia/mm.html"
        name="multimedia">page.  If you're interested specifically in
        the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/~ahasty/Bt848.html"
        name="Bt848"> video capture chip, then follow that link.
      </itemize>

      <p>The FreeBSD handbook also has a fairly complete
      <url url="../handbook/bibliography.html" name="bibliography">
      section which is worth reading if you're looking for actual
      books to buy.

  </sect>