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<!--
The FreeBSD Documentation Project
$FreeBSD$
-->
<chapter id="introduction">
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>FreeBSD is a 4.4BSD-Lite2 based operating system for Intel architecture
(x86) and DEC Alpha based computer systems. For an overview of FreeBSD, see
<link linkend="nutshell">FreeBSD in a nutshell</link>. For a history of
the project, read <link linkend="history">a brief history of FreeBSD</link>.
To see a description of the latest release, read <link
linkend="relnotes">about the current release</link>. If you are
interested in contributing something to the FreeBSD project (code,
equipment, sacks of unmarked bills), please see about <link
linkend="contrib">contributing to FreeBSD</link>.</para>
<sect1 id="nutshell">
<title>FreeBSD in a Nutshell</title>
<para>FreeBSD is a state of the art operating system for computer
systems based on both the Intel CPU architecture, which includes the
386 and 486 and Pentium processors (both SX and DX versions) and the DEC
Alpha architecture. Intel compatible CPUs from AMD to Cyrix are
supported as well. FreeBSD provides you with many advanced features
previously available only on much more expensive computers.
These features include:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Preemptive multitasking</emphasis> with dynamic
priority adjustment to ensure smooth and fair sharing of the
computer between applications and users.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Multiuser</emphasis> access means that many people can
use a FreeBSD system simultaneously for a variety of things. System
peripherals such as printers and tape drives are also properly
SHARED BETWEEN ALL users on the system.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Complete <emphasis>TCP/IP networking</emphasis> including SLIP,
PPP, NFS and NIS support. This means that your FreeBSD machine can
inter-operate easily with other systems as well act as an enterprise
server, providing vital functions such as NFS (remote file access)
and e-mail services or putting your organization on the Internet
with WWW, ftp, routing and firewall (security) services.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Memory protection</emphasis> ensures that applications
(or users) cannot interfere with each other. One application
crashing will not affect others in any way.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>FreeBSD is a <emphasis>32-bit</emphasis> operating system and
was designed as such from the ground up.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The industry standard <emphasis>X Window System</emphasis>
(X11R6) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for the cost of a
common VGA card and monitor and comes with full sources.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Binary compatibility</emphasis> with many programs
built for SCO, BSDI, NetBSD, Linux and 386BSD.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Hundreds of <emphasis>ready-to-run</emphasis> applications are
available from the FreeBSD <emphasis>ports</emphasis> and
<emphasis>packages</emphasis> collection. Why search the net when
you can find it all right here?</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Thousands of additional and <emphasis>easy-to-port</emphasis>
applications available on the Internet. FreeBSD is source code
compatible with most popular commercial Unix systems and thus most
applications require few, if any, changes to compile.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Demand paged <emphasis>virtual memory</emphasis> and
“merged VM/buffer cache” design efficiently satisfies
applications with large appetites for memory while still maintaining
interactive response to other users.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Shared libraries</emphasis> (the Unix equivalent of
MS-Windows DLLs) provide for efficient use of disk space and
memory.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A full complement of <emphasis>C</emphasis>,
<emphasis>C++</emphasis> and <emphasis>Fortran</emphasis>
development tools. Many additional languages for advanced research
and development are also available in the ports and packages
collection.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Source code</emphasis> for the entire system means you
have the greatest degree of control over your environment. Why be
locked into a proprietary solution and at the mercy of your vendor
when you can have a truly Open System?</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Extensive <emphasis>on-line documentation</emphasis>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>And many more!</emphasis></para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>FreeBSD is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite2 release from Computer Systems
Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley, and
carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems development. In
addition to the fine work provided by CSRG, the FreeBSD Project has put
in many thousands of hours in fine tuning the system for maximum
performance and reliability in real-life load situations. As many of
the commercial giants struggle to field PC operating systems with such
features, performance and reliability, FreeBSD can offer them
<emphasis>now</emphasis>!</para>
<para>The applications to which FreeBSD can be put are truly limited only
by your own imagination. From software development to factory
automation, inventory control to azimuth correction of remote satellite
antennae; if it can be done with a commercial UNIX product then it is
more than likely that you can do it with FreeBSD, too! FreeBSD also
benefits significantly from the literally thousands of high quality
applications developed by research centers and universities around the
world, often available at little to no cost. Commercial applications are
also available and appearing in greater numbers every day.</para>
<para>Because the source code for FreeBSD itself is generally available,
the system can also be customized to an almost unheard of degree for
special applications or projects, and in ways not generally possible
with operating systems from most major commercial vendors. Here is just
a sampling of some of the applications in which people are currently
using FreeBSD:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Internet Services:</emphasis> The robust TCP/IP
networking built into FreeBSD makes it an ideal platform for a
variety of Internet services such as:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>FTP servers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>World Wide Web servers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Gopher servers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Electronic Mail servers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>USENET News</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Bulletin Board Systems</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>And more...</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>You can easily start out small with an inexpensive 386 class PC
and upgrade as your enterprise grows.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Education:</emphasis> Are you a student of computer
science or a related engineering field? There is no better way of
learning about operating systems, computer architecture and
networking than the hands on, under the hood experience that FreeBSD
can provide. A number of freely available CAD, mathematical and
graphic design packages also make it highly useful to those whose
primary interest in a computer is to get <emphasis>other</emphasis>
work done!</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Research:</emphasis> With source code for the entire
system available, FreeBSD is an excellent platform for research in
operating systems as well as other branches of computer science.
FreeBSD's freely available nature also makes it possible for remote
groups to collaborate on ideas or shared development without having
to worry about special licensing agreements or limitations on what
may be discussed in open forums.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Networking:</emphasis> Need a new router? A name
server (DNS)? A firewall to keep people out of your internal
network? FreeBSD can easily turn that unused 386 or 486 PC sitting
in the corner into an advanced router with sophisticated packet
filtering capabilities.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>X Window workstation:</emphasis> FreeBSD is a fine
choice for an inexpensive X terminal solution, either using the
freely available XFree86 server or one of the excellent commercial
servers provided by X Inside. Unlike an X terminal, FreeBSD allows
many applications to be run locally, if desired, thus relieving the
burden on a central server. FreeBSD can even boot
“diskless”, making individual workstations even cheaper
and easier to administer.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis>Software Development:</emphasis> The basic FreeBSD
system comes with a full complement of development tools including
the renowned GNU C/C++ compiler and debugger.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>FreeBSD is available in both source and binary form on CDROM and via
anonymous ftp. See <link linkend="mirrors">Obtaining FreeBSD</link>
for more details.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="history">
<title>A Brief History of FreeBSD</title>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.jkh;</emphasis>.</para>
<para>The FreeBSD project had its genesis in the early part of 1993,
partially as an outgrowth of the “Unofficial 386BSD
Patchkit” by the patchkit's last 3 coordinators: Nate Williams,
Rod Grimes and myself.</para>
<para>Our original goal was to produce an intermediate snapshot of 386BSD
in order to fix a number of problems with it that the patchkit mechanism
just was not capable of solving. Some of you may remember the early
working title for the project being “386BSD 0.5” or
“386BSD Interim” in reference to that fact.</para>
<para>386BSD was Bill Jolitz's operating system, which had been up to that
point suffering rather severely from almost a year's worth of neglect.
As the patchkit swelled ever more uncomfortably with each passing day,
we were in unanimous agreement that something had to be done and decided
to try and assist Bill by providing this interim “cleanup”
snapshot. Those plans came to a rude halt when Bill Jolitz suddenly
decided to withdraw his sanction from the project and without any clear
indication of what would be done instead.</para>
<para>It did not take us long to decide that the goal remained worthwhile,
even without Bill's support, and so we adopted the name
“FreeBSD”, coined by David Greenman. Our initial objectives
were set after consulting with the system's current users and, once it
became clear that the project was on the road to perhaps even becoming a
reality, I contacted Walnut Creek CDROM with an eye towards improving
FreeBSD's distribution channels for those many unfortunates without easy
access to the Internet. Walnut Creek CDROM not only supported the idea
of distributing FreeBSD on CD but went so far as to provide the project
with a machine to work on and a fast Internet connection. Without
Walnut Creek CDROM's almost unprecedented degree of faith in what was,
at the time, a completely unknown project, it is quite unlikely that
FreeBSD would have gotten as far, as fast, as it has today.</para>
<para>The first CDROM (and general net-wide) distribution was FreeBSD 1.0,
released in December of 1993. This was based on the 4.3BSD-Lite
(“Net/2”) tape from U.C. Berkeley, with many components also
provided by 386BSD and the Free Software Foundation. It was a fairly
reasonable success for a first offering, and we followed it with the
highly successful FreeBSD 1.1 release in May of 1994.</para>
<para>Around this time, some rather unexpected storm clouds formed on the
horizon as Novell and U.C. Berkeley settled their long-running lawsuit
over the legal status of the Berkeley Net/2 tape. A condition of that
settlement was U.C. Berkeley's concession that large parts of Net/2 were
“encumbered” code and the property of Novell, who had in
turn acquired it from AT&T some time previously. What Berkeley got
in return was Novell's “blessing” that the 4.4BSD-Lite
release, when it was finally released, would be declared unencumbered
and all existing Net/2 users would be strongly encouraged to switch.
This included FreeBSD, and the project was given until the end of July
1994 to stop shipping its own Net/2 based product. Under the terms of
that agreement, the project was allowed one last release before the
deadline, that release being FreeBSD 1.1.5.1.</para>
<para>FreeBSD then set about the arduous task of literally re-inventing
itself from a completely new and rather incomplete set of 4.4BSD-Lite
bits. The “Lite” releases were light in part because
Berkeley's CSRG had removed large chunks of code required for actually
constructing a bootable running system (due to various legal
requirements) and the fact that the Intel port of 4.4 was highly
incomplete. It took the project until November of 1994 to make this
transition, at which point it released FreeBSD 2.0 to the net
and on CDROM (in late December). Despite being still more than a little
rough around the edges, the release was a significant success and was
followed by the more robust and easier to install FreeBSD 2.0.5 release
in June of 1995.</para>
<para>We released FreeBSD 2.1.5 in August of 1996, and it appeared to be
popular enough among the ISP and commercial communities that another
release along the 2.1-stable branch was merited. This was FreeBSD
2.1.7.1, released in February 1997 and capping the end of mainstream
development on 2.1-stable. Now in maintenance mode, only security
enhancements and other critical bug fixes will be done on this branch
(RELENG_2_1_0).</para>
<para>FreeBSD 2.2 was branched from the development mainline
(“-current”) in November 1996 as the RELENG_2_2 branch, and
the first full release (2.2.1) was released in April, 1997. Further
releases along the 2.2 branch were done in the Summer and Fall of '97,
the latest being 2.2.7 which appeared in late July of '98. The first
official 3.0 release appeared in October, 1998 and the last release on
the 2.2 branch, 2.2.8, appeared in November, 1998.</para>
<para>The tree branched again on Jan 20, 1999. This led to 4.0-current
and a 3.x-stable branch, from which 3.1 was released on February
15th, 1999 and 3.2 was released on May 15, 1999.</para>
<para>Long term development projects will continue to take place in the
4.0-current branch and SNAPshot releases of 4.0 on CDROM (and, of
course, on the net).</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="goals">
<title>FreeBSD Project Goals</title>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.jkh;</emphasis>.</para>
<para>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 are 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, I believe, one of the
most fundamental goals of Free Software and one that we enthusiastically
support.</para>
<para>That code in our source tree which falls under the GNU General Public
License (GPL) or Library General Public License (LGPL) 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 when reasonable to do so.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="development">
<title>The FreeBSD Development Model</title>
<para><emphasis>Contributed by &a.asami;</emphasis>.</para>
<para>The development of FreeBSD is a very open and flexible process,
FreeBSD being literally built from the contributions of hundreds of
people around the world, as can be seen from our <link
linkend="staff">list of contributors</link>. We are constantly on the
lookout for new developers and ideas, and those interested in becoming
more closely involved with the project need simply contact us at the
&a.hackers;. Those who prefer to work more independently are also
accommodated, and they are free to use our FTP facilities at <ulink
url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/incoming/">ftp.FreeBSD.org</ulink>
to distribute their own patches or work-in-progress sources. The
&a.announce; is also available to those wishing to make other FreeBSD
users aware of major areas of work.</para>
<para>Useful things to know about the FreeBSD project and its development
process, whether working independently or in close cooperation:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>The CVS repository<anchor
id="development-cvs-repository"></term>
<listitem>
<para>The central source tree for FreeBSD is maintained by <ulink
url="http://www.cyclic.com/cyclic-pages/CVS-sheet.html">CVS</ulink>
(Concurrent Version System), a freely available source code
control tool which comes bundled with FreeBSD. The primary <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi">CVS
repository</ulink> resides on a machine in Concord CA, USA from
where it is replicated to numerous mirror machines throughout the
world. The CVS tree, as well as the <link
linkend="current">-current</link> and <link
linkend="stable">-stable</link> trees which are checked out of
it, can be easily replicated to your own machine as well. Please
refer to the <link linkend="synching">Synchronizing your source
tree</link> section for more information on doing this.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>The committers list<anchor id="development-committers"></term>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="staff-committers">committers</link> are the
people who have <emphasis>write</emphasis> access to the CVS tree,
and are thus authorized to make modifications to the FreeBSD
source (the term “committer” comes from the
&man.cvs.1; <command>commit</command> command, which is used
to bring new changes into the CVS repository). The best way of
making submissions for review by the committers list is to use the
&man.send-pr.1; command, though if something appears to be
jammed in the system then you may also reach them by sending mail
to <email>committers@FreeBSD.org</email>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>The FreeBSD core team<anchor id="development-core"></term>
<listitem>
<para>The <link linkend="staff-core">FreeBSD core team</link> would
be equivalent to the board of directors if the FreeBSD Project
were a company. The primary task of the core team is to make sure
the project, as a whole, is in good shape and is heading in the
right directions. Inviting dedicated and responsible developers
to join our group of committers is one of the functions of the
core team, as is the recruitment of new core team members as
others move on. Most current members of the core team started as
committers whose addiction to the project got the better of
them.</para>
<para>Some core team members also have specific <link
linkend="staff-who">areas of responsibility</link>, meaning that
they are committed to ensuring that some large portion of the
system works as advertised.</para>
<note>
<para>Most members of the core team are volunteers when it comes
to FreeBSD development and do not benefit from the project
financially, so “commitment” should also not be
misconstrued as meaning “guaranteed support.” The
“board of directors” analogy above is not actually
very accurate, and it may be more suitable to say that these are
the people who gave up their lives in favor of FreeBSD against
their better judgement! <!-- smiley
--><emphasis>;)</emphasis></para>
</note>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Outside contributors</term>
<listitem>
<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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