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  <info><title>如何在 FreeBSD-questions mailing list 上得到正解</title>
    

    <author><personname><firstname>Greg</firstname><surname>Lehey</surname></personname><affiliation>
	<address><email>grog@FreeBSD.org</email></address>
      </affiliation></author>

    <legalnotice xml:id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
      &tm-attrib.freebsd;
      &tm-attrib.microsoft;
      &tm-attrib.netscape;
      &tm-attrib.opengroup;
      &tm-attrib.qualcomm;
      &tm-attrib.general;
    </legalnotice>

    <pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>

    <releaseinfo>$FreeBSD$</releaseinfo>

    <abstract>
      <para>本文主要是給準備寫信到 FreeBSD-questions mailing list 的人提供一些參考。
        我們會給你一些發問的技巧與建議，以便讓你的答案得到更有用的答覆。</para>

      <para>本文會定期發到 FreeBSD-questions mailing list 上。</para>
    </abstract>
  </info>

  <sect1>
    <title xml:id="Introduction">簡介</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 has not 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 <link xlink:href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How To Become
	A Hacker</link></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 is
      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 would 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 will look at how to answer one.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml:id="subscribe">How to subscribe to FreeBSD-questions</title>

    <para>FreeBSD-questions is a mailing list, so you need mail access.  Point
      your WWW browser to the <link xlink:href="&a.questions.url;">information page of the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</link>.
      In the section titled <quote>Subscribing to freebsd-questions</quote> fill
      in the <quote>Your email address</quote> field; the other fields are optional.
    </para>

    <note>
      <para>The password fields in the subscription form provide only mild
        security, but should prevent others from messing with your
        subscription.  <emphasis>Do not use a valuable password</emphasis> as
        it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext.</para>
    </note>

    <para>You will receive a confirmation message from
      <application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
      to complete your subscription.</para>

    <para>Finally, when you get the <quote>Welcome</quote> message from
      <application>mailman</application> telling you the details of the list
      and subscription area password, <emphasis>please save it</emphasis>.
      If you ever should want to leave the list, you will need the information
      there.  See the next section for more details.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml:id="unsubscribe">How to unsubscribe from FreeBSD-questions</title>

    <para>When you subscribed to FreeBSD-questions, you got a welcome message
      from <application>mailman</application>.  In this message, amongst
      other things, it told you how to unsubscribe.  Here is a typical
      message:</para>

    <literallayout class="monospaced">Welcome to the freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list!

To post to this list, send your email to:

  freebsd-questions@freebsd.org

General information about the mailing list is at:

  http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions

If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (e.g., switch to
or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your
subscription page at:

http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions/grog%40lemsi.de

You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to:

  freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org

with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the
quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions.

You must know your password to change your options (including changing
the password, itself) or to unsubscribe.  It is:

  12345

Normally, Mailman will remind you of your freebsd.org mailing list
passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you
prefer.  This reminder will also include instructions on how to
unsubscribe or change your account options.  There is also a button on
your options page that will email your current password to you.</literallayout>

    <para>From the URL specified in your <quote>Welcome</quote> message you
      may visit the <quote>Account management page</quote> and enter a request
      to <quote>Unsubscribe</quote> you from FreeBSD-questions mailing
      list.</para>

    <para>A confirmation message will be sent to you from
      <application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
      to finish unsubscribing.</para>

    <para>If you have done this, and you still can not figure out what
      is going on, send a message to
      <email>freebsd-questions-request@FreeBSD.org</email>, and they will
      sort things out for you.  <emphasis>Do not</emphasis> send a message to
      FreeBSD-questions: they can not help you.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml: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 is 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 installing FreeBSD or the use of a particular &unix;
	  utility.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you are not sure,
	  or you do not 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 are
	  <emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it is 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 does not mean you should automatically send your questions
      to <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>.  The criteria above still apply, and
      it is in your interest to stick to them, since you are more likely to get
      good results that way.</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml:id="before">Before submitting a question</title>

    <para>You can (and should) do some things yourself before asking a question
      on one of the mailing lists:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>Try solving the problem on your own.  If you post a question which
	  shows that you have tried to solve the problem, your question will
	  generally attract more positive attention from people reading it.
	  Trying to solve the problem yourself will also enhance your understanding
	  of FreeBSD, and will eventually let you use your knowledge to help others
	  by answering questions posted to the mailing lists.
	</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Read the manual pages, and the FreeBSD documentation (either
	  installed in <filename>/usr/doc</filename> or accessible via WWW at
	  <uri xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org">http://www.FreeBSD.org</uri>), especially the
	  <link xlink:href="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">handbook</link>
	  and the <link xlink:href="&url.books.faq;/index.html">FAQ</link>.
	</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Browse and/or search the archives for the mailing list, to see if your
	  question or a similar one has been asked (and possibly answered) on the
	  list.  You can browse and/or search the mailing list archives
	  at <uri xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mail">http://www.FreeBSD.org/mail</uri>
	  and <uri xlink:href="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists</uri>
	  respectively.  This can be done at other WWW sites as well, for example
	  at <uri xlink:href="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com">http://marc.theaimsgroup.com</uri>.
	</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>Use a search engine such as <link xlink:href="http://www.google.com">Google</link>
          or <link xlink:href="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo</link> to find answers to your question.
	  Google even has a <link xlink:href="http://www.google.com/bsd">BSD-specific search interface</link>.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml: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 is perfectly possible to send a
	  message to FreeBSD-questions and not get an answer even if you
	  follow these rules.  It is much more possible to not get an answer if
	  you do not.  In the rest of this document, we will 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 is in your interest to specify a subject. <quote>FreeBSD
	  problem</quote> or <quote>Help</quote> are not enough.  If you provide no subject at
	  all, many people will not bother reading it.  If your subject is not
	  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 DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!.  We appreciate that a lot of people do not
	    speak English as their first language, and we try to make
	    allowances for that, but it is really painful to try to read a
	    message written full of typos or without any line breaks.</para>

	<para>Do not 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 is 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
	  <link xlink:href="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers or badly
	  configured mailers</link>.  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 do not 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 does not come before the first answer, they
	  may assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>Do not include unrelated questions in the same message.  Firstly,
	  a long message tends to scare people off, and secondly, it is 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 is a start:</para>

	<itemizedlist>
	  <listitem>
	    <para>In nearly every case, it is important to know the version of
	      FreeBSD you are running.  This is particularly the case for
	      FreeBSD-CURRENT, where you should also specify the date of the
	      sources, though of course you should not 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 is possible that it is hardware.  What kind of
	      CPU are you using?  How fast?  What motherboard?  How much
	      memory?  What peripherals?</para>

	    <para>There is 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 are running, but what version of
	      FreeBSD as well.</para>
	  </listitem>

	  <listitem>
	    <para>If you get error messages, do not 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, do not 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 is 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>.  Do not try to copy
	  this information by typing it in again; it is a real pain, and you are
	  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 &gt; /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 do not 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 do not get an answer after, say, a week, it
	  might help to re-send the message.  If you do not get an answer to
	  your second message, though, you are 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 is the same one in each case).
      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 you 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 CDROM 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 CDROM drive.  The installation works just
fine, but when I try to reboot the system, I get the message
<quote>Missing Operating System</quote>.</literallayout>
    </example>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml: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 are talking about.  Do not 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, did you not?).  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
	  <link xlink:href="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</link>, can
	  <emphasis>thread</emphasis> messages, showing the exact
	  relationships between the messages.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title xml: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 will see the question followed by any answers, all
	  together.</para>

	<para>If somebody has already answered it, it does not automatically
	  mean that you should not 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 do not help
	  much, although there are exceptions, like when somebody is
	  describing a problem he is having, and he does not know whether it is
	  his fault or whether there is 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 does not express himself
	  very well.  Even with the best understanding of the system, it is
	  easy to send a reply which does not answer the question.  This
	  does not help: you will leave the person who submitted the question
	  more frustrated or confused than ever.  If nobody else answers, and
	  you are 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
	do not know if this is correct, but since nobody else has
	replied, why don't you try replacing your ATAPI CDROM with
	a frog?</quote>.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>Unless there is 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 are 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 do not overdo it.  It should still be possible for
	  somebody who did not read the original message to understand what
	  you are 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>&gt; </literal></quote> to the original message
	  works best.  Leaving white space after the
	  <quote><literal>&gt; </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 is 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 does not do it
	  automatically, you should do it manually.</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>If the submitter did not 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 is appropriate to say what you did and why you
	  did it, but try not to be rude.  If you find you can not answer
	  without being rude, do not 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>