163 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
163 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
THE FREEBSD CURRENT POLICY
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Last updated: $Date: 1994/09/11 10:56:05 $
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This document attempts to explain the rationale behind FreeBSD-current,
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what you should expect should you decide to run it, and states some
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prerequisites for making sure the process goes as smoothly as possible.
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1. What is FreeBSD-current?
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FreeBSD-current is, quite literally, nothing more than a daily snapshot of
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the working sources for FreeBSD. These include work in progress, experimental
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changes, and transitional mechanisms that may or may not be present in
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the next official release of the software. While many of us compile
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almost daily from FreeBSD-current sources, there are periods of time when
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the sources are literally uncompilable. These problems are generally resolved
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as expeditiously as possible, but whether or not FreeBSD-current sources bring
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disaster or greatly desired functionality can literally be a matter of which
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part of any given 24 hour period you grabbed them in! Please read on..
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Under certain circumstances we will sometimes make binaries for parts of
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FreeBSD-current available, but only because we're interested in getting
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something tested, not because we're in the business of providing binary
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releases of current. If we don't offer, please don't ask! It takes far
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too much time to do this as a general task.
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2. Who needs FreeBSD-current?
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FreeBSD-current is made generally available for 3 primary interest groups:
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1. Members of the FreeBSD group who are actively working on one
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part or another of the source tree and for whom keeping `current'
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is an absolute requirement.
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2. Members of the FreeBSD group who are active ALPHA/BETA testers
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and willing to spend time working through problems in order to
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ensure that FreeBSD-current remains as sane as possible. These
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are also people who wish to make topical suggestions on changes
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and the general direction of FreeBSD.
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3. Peripheral members of the FreeBSD (or some other) group who merely
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wish to keep an eye on things and use the current sources for
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reference purposes (e.g. for *reading*, not running). These
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people also make the occasional comment or contribute code.
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3. What is FreeBSD-current _NOT_?
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1. A fast-track to getting pre-release bits because there's something
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you heard was pretty cool in there and you want to be the first on
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your block to have it.
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2. A quick way of getting bug fixes.
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3. In any way "officially supported" by us.
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We do our best to help people genuinely in one of the 3
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"legitimate" FreeBSD-current catagories, but we simply DO NOT
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HAVE THE TIME to help every person who jumps into FreeBSD-current
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with more enthusiasm than knowledge of how to deal with
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experimental system software. This is not because we're mean and
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nasty people who don't like helping people out (we wouldn't even be
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doing FreeBSD if we were), it's literally because we can't answer
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400 messages a day AND actually work on FreeBSD! I'm sure if
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given the choice between having us answer lots of questions or
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continue to improve FreeBSD, most of you would vote for us
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improving it (and so would we! :-).
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4. Ok. I still think I "qualify" for FreeBSD-current, so what do I do?
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1. Join the freebsd-hackers and freebsd-commit mailing lists.
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This is not just a good idea, it's ESSENTIAL. If you aren't on
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freebsd-hackers, you won't read the comments that people are
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making about the current state of the system and thus will end
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up stumbling over a lot of problems that others have already
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found and solved. Even more importantly, you will miss out on
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potentially critical information (e.g. "Yo, Everybody! Before you
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rebuild /usr/src, you MUST rebuild the kernel or your system
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will crash horribly!").
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The freebsd-commit list will allow you to see the commit log
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entry for each change as its made. This can also contain
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important information, and will let you know what parts of the
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system are being actively changed.
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To join these lists, send mail to `majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG'
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and say:
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subscribe freebsd-hackers
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subscribe freebsd-commit
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In the body of your message. Optionally, you can also say `help'
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and MajorDomo will send you full help on how to subscribe and
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unsubscribe to the various other mailing lists we support.
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2. Grab the sources from ftp.FreeBSD.ORG. You can do this in
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two ways:
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1. Use the CMU `sup' program (Software Update Protocol).
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This is the most recommended method, since it allows you
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to grab the entire collection once and then only what's
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changed from then on. Many people run sup from cron
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and keep their sources up-to-date automatically.
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To get a binary of the sup program for FreeBSD, as well
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as the documentation and some sample configuration files,
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look in:
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FreeBSD.ORG:~ftp/pub/sup
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2. Use ftp. The source tree for FreeBSD-current is always
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"exported" on:
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ftp.FreeBSD.ORG:~ftp/pub/FreeBSD/FreeBSD-current
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We use `wu-ftpd' which allows compressed/tar'd grabbing
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of whole trees. e.g. you see:
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usr.bin/lex
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You can do:
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ftp> cd usr.bin
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ftp> get lex.tar.Z
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And it will get the whole directory for you as a compressed
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tar file.
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3. If you're grabbing the sources to run, and not just look at,
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then grab ALL of current, not just selected portions. The
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reason for this is that various parts of the source depend on
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updates elsewhere and trying to compile just a subset is almost
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guaranteed to get you into trouble.
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4. Before compiling current, read the Makefile in /usr/src
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carefully. You'll see one-time targets like `bootstrapld'
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which *MUST* be run as part of the upgrading process. Reading
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freebsd-hackers will keep you up-to-date on other bootstrapping
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procedures that sometimes become necessary as we move towards
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the next release.
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5. Be active! If you're running FreeBSD-current, we want to know
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what you have to say about it, especially if you have suggestions
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for enhancements or bug fixes. Suggestions with accompanying code
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are received most enthusiastically! :-)
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Thank you for taking the time to read this all the way through. We're
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always very keen to remain "open" and share the fruits of our labor
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with the widest possible audience, but sharing development sources has
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always had certain pitfalls associated with it (which is why most
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commercial organizations won't even consider it) and I want to make
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sure that people at least come into this with their eyes open, and
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don't make the leap unless they're good at working without a net!
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Jordan
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