freebsd-dev/release/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/installation/common/layout.sgml

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<sect1 id="layout">
  <title>Distribution Format</title>

  <para>A typical &os; distribution directory looks something like this:</para>

<screen>ERRATA.HTM      README.TXT      compat1x        dict            kernel
ERRATA.TXT      RELNOTES.HTM    compat20        doc             manpages
HARDWARE.HTM    RELNOTES.TXT    compat21        docbook.css     packages
HARDWARE.TXT    bin             compat22        filename.txt    ports
INSTALL.HTM     boot            compat3x        floppies        proflibs
INSTALL.TXT     catpages        compat4x        games           src
README.HTM      cdrom.inf       crypto          info            tools</screen>

  <para>If you want to do a CDROM, FTP or NFS installation from this
  distribution directory, all you need to do is make the 1.44MB boot
  floppies from the floppies directory (see
  <xref linkend="floppies"> for instructions on how to
  do this), boot them and follow the instructions.  The rest of the
  data needed during the installation will be obtained automatically
  based on your selections.  If you've never installed &os; before,
  you also want to read the entirety of this document (the
  installation instructions) file.</para>

  <para>If you're trying to do some other type of installation or are
  merely curious about how a distribution is organized, what follows
  is a more thorough description of some of these items in more detail:
    <orderedlist>
      <listitem>
	<para>The <filename>*.TXT</filename> and
	<filename>*.HTM</filename> files contain
	documentation (for example, this document is contained in both
	<filename>INSTALL.TXT</filename> and
	<filename>INSTALL.HTM</filename>) and should be read
	before starting an installation.  The
	<filename>*.TXT</filename> files are plain text, while the
	<filename>*.HTM</filename> files are HTML files that can be
	read by almost any Web browser.  Some distributions may
	contain documentation in other formats as well, such as PDF or
	PostScript.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para><filename>docbook.css</filename> is a Cascading Style
        Sheet (CSS) file used by some Web browsers for formatting the
        HTML documentation.
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
	<para>The <filename>bin</filename>,
	<filename>catpages</filename>,
	<filename>crypto</filename>, 
	<filename>dict</filename>,
	<filename>doc</filename>,
	<filename>games</filename>,
	<filename>info</filename>, 
	<filename>manpages</filename>,
	<filename>proflibs</filename>, and 
	<filename>src</filename> directories contain the primary distribution
	components of &os; itself and are split into smaller files
	for easy packing onto floppies (should that be
	necessary).</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
	<para>The <filename>compat1x</filename>,
	<filename>compat20</filename>,
	<filename>compat21</filename>,
	<filename>compat22</filename>,
	<filename>compat3x</filename>, and
	<filename>compat4x</filename>
	directories contain distributions for compatibility with older
	releases and are distributed as single gzip'd tar files - they
	can be installed during release time or later by running their
	<filename>install.sh</filename> scripts.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
	<para>The <filename>floppies/</filename> subdirectory contains the floppy
	installation images; further information on using them can be
	found in <xref linkend="floppies">.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
	<para>The <filename>packages</filename> and <filename>ports</filename> directories contain the &os;
	Packages and Ports Collections.  Packages may be installed from
	the packages directory by running the command:</para>

	<screen>&prompt.root;<userinput>/stand/sysinstall configPackages</userinput></screen>

	<para>Packages can also be installed by feeding individual
	filenames in <filename>packages</filename>/ to the &man.pkg.add.1; command.</para>

	<para>The Ports Collection may be installed like any other
	distribution and requires about 100MB unpacked.  More
	information on the ports collection may be obtained from
	<ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/">http://www.FreeBSD.org/ports/</ulink> or locally from
	<filename>/usr/share/doc/handbook</filename> if you've installed the <filename>doc</filename>
	distribution.</para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
	<para>Last of all, the <filename>tools</filename> directory contains various DOS
	tools for discovering disk geometries, installing boot managers
	and the like.  It is purely optional and provided only for user
	convenience.</para>
      </listitem>
    </orderedlist>
  </para>

  <para>A typical distribution directory (for example, the <filename>info</filename> distribution) looks like this internally:</para>

<screen>CHECKSUM.MD5    info.ab         info.ad         info.inf        install.sh
info.aa         info.ac         info.ae         info.mtree</screen>

  <para>The <filename>CHECKSUM.MD5</filename> file contains MD5 signatures for each file,
  should data corruption be suspected, and is purely for reference. It
  is not used by the actual installation and does not need to be
  copied with the rest of the distribution files.  The <filename>info.a*</filename> files
  are split, gzip'd tar files, the contents of which can be viewed by
  doing:</para>

  <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cat info.a* | tar tvzf -</userinput></screen>

  <para>During installation, they are automatically concatenated and
  extracted by the installation procedure.</para>

  <para>The <filename>info.inf</filename> file is also necessary since it is read by the
  installation program in order to figure out how many pieces to look
  for when fetching and concatenating the distribution.  When putting
  distributions onto floppies, the <filename>.inf</filename> file <emphasis>must</emphasis> occupy the first
  floppy of each distribution set!</para>

  <para>The <filename>info.mtree</filename> file is another non-essential file which is
  provided for user reference.  It contains the MD5 signatures of the
  <emphasis>unpacked</emphasis> distribution files and can be later
  used with the &man.mtree.8; program to verify the installation
  permissions and checksums against any possible modifications to the
  file.  When used with the <filename>bin</filename> distribution,
  this can be an excellent way of detecting trojan horse attacks on
  your system.</para>

  <para>Finally, the <filename>install.sh</filename> file is for use
  by those who want to install the distribution after installation
  time.  To install the info distribution from CDROM after a system
  was installed, for example, you'd do:</para>

  <screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /cdrom/info</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>sh install.sh</userinput></screen>
</sect1>