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<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->

<chapt>
  <heading>Resources on the Internet<label id="eresources"></heading>

  <p><em>Contributed by &a.jkh;.</em>

  <p>The rapid pace of FreeBSD progress makes print media impractical as a
    means of following the latest developments.  Electronic resources are
    the best, if not often the only, way stay informed of the latest advances.
    Since FreeBSD is a volunteer effort, the user community itself also
    generally serves as a `technical support department' of sorts, with
    electronic mail and  USENET news being the most effective way of reaching
    that community.

    The most important points of contact with the FreeBSD
    user community are outlined below.  If you are aware of other
    resources not mentioned here, please send them to the &a.doc
    so that they may also be included.

      <sect>
        <heading>Mailing lists<label id="eresources:mail"></heading>

<p>Though many of the FreeBSD development members read USENET, we cannot
always guarantee that we will get to your questions in a timely fashion
(or at all) if you post them only to one of the comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.*
groups.  By addressing your questions to the appropriate mailing list
you will reach both us and a concentrated FreeBSD audience, invariably
assuring a better (or at least faster) response.

<p>The charters for the various lists are given at the bottom of this
document.  <bf>Please read the charter before joining or sending
mail to any list</bf>.  Most of our list subscribers now receive many hundreds
of FreeBSD related messages every day, and by setting down charters
and rules for proper use we are striving to keep the signal-to-noise ratio
of the lists high.  To do less would see the mailing lists ultimately fail
as an effective communications medium for the project.

Archives are kept for all of the mailing lists and can be searched
using the <url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/search.html"
name="FreeBSD World Wide Web server">.  The keyword searchable archive
offers an excellent way of finding answers to frequently asked
questions and should be consulted before posting a question.

<sect1><heading>List summary<label id="eresources:summary"></heading>

<p><bf>General lists:</bf> The following are general lists which
anyone is free to join:
<verb>
List                     Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-announce         Important events and project milestones
freebsd-bugs             Bug reports
freebsd-chat             Non-technical items related to the FreeBSD community
freebsd-current          Discussion concerning the use of FreeBSD-current
freebsd-stable           Discussion concerning the use of FreeBSD-stable
freebsd-isp              Issues for Internet Service Providers using FreeBSD
freebsd-questions        User questions
</verb>

<bf>Technical lists:</bf> The following lists are for technical discussion.
You should read the charter for each list carefully before joining or
sending mail to one as there are firm guidelines for their use and content.
<verb>
List                     Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-doc              The FreeBSD Documentation project
freebsd-emulation        Emulation of other systems such as Linux/DOS/Windows
freebsd-fs               Filesystems
freebsd-hackers          General technical discussion
freebsd-hardware         General discussion of hardware for running FreeBSD
freebsd-mobile           Discussions about mobile computing
freebsd-multimedia       Multimedia discussion
freebsd-platforms        Concerning ports to non-Intel architecture platforms
freebsd-ports            Discussion of the ports collection
freebsd-security         Security issues
freebsd-security-notifications  
                         Security notifications  (moderated mailing list)
freebsd-scsi             The SCSI subsystem
freebsd-smp              Design discussions for [A]Symmetric MultiProcessing
</verb>

<bf>Limited lists:</bf> The following lists require approval from
<url url="mailto:core@freebsd.org" name="core@FreeBSD.ORG"> to join,
though anyone is free to send messages to them which fall within the
scope of their charters.  It is also a good idea establish a presence
in the technical lists before asking to join one of these limited lists.
<verb>
List                     Purpose
----------------------------------------------------------------------
freebsd-admin            Administrative issues
freebsd-arch             Architecture and design discussions
freebsd-core             FreeBSD core team
freebsd-hubs             People running mirror sites (infrastructural support)
freebsd-install          Installation development
freebsd-user-groups      User group coordination
</verb>

<bf>CVS lists:</bf> The following lists are for people interested in
seeing the log messages for changes to various areas of the source tree.
They are <bf>Read-Only</bf> lists and should not have mail sent to them.

<verb>
List name       Source area          Area Description (source for)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
cvs-CVSROOT     /usr/src/[A-Z]*      Top level /usr/src file changes
cvs-all         /usr/src             All changes to the tree (superset)
cvs-bin         /usr/src/bin         System binaries
cvs-etc         /usr/src/etc         System files
cvs-games       /usr/src/games       Games
cvs-gnu         /usr/src/gnu         GPL'd utilities
cvs-include     /usr/src/include     Include files
cvs-kerberosIV  /usr/src/kerberosIV  Kerberos encryption code
cvs-lib         /usr/src/lib         System libraries
cvs-libexec     /usr/src/libexec     System binaries
cvs-ports       /usr/ports           Ported software
cvs-sbin        /usr/src/sbin        System binaries
cvs-share       /usr/src/share       System shared files
cvs-sys         /usr/src/sys         Kernel
cvs-usrbin      /usr/src/usr.bin     Use binaries
cvs-usrsbin     /usr/src/usr.sbin    System binaries
</verb>

<sect1><heading>How to subscribe<label id="eresources:subscribe"></heading>

<p>All mailing lists live on <tt>FreeBSD.ORG</tt>, so to post to a
given list you simply mail to <em>listname</em><tt>@FreeBSD.ORG</tt>.  It
will then be redistributed to mailing list members world-wide.

To subscribe to a list, send mail to &a.majordomo and include
<tscreen><verb>
subscribe <listname> [<optional address>]
</verb></tscreen>
In the body of your message.  For example, to subscribe yourself to
freebsd-announce, you'd do:
<tscreen><verb>
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
subscribe freebsd-announce
^D
</verb></tscreen>
If you want to subscribe yourself under a different name, or submit a
subscription request for a local mailing list (note: this is more efficient
if you have several interested parties at one site, and highly appreciated by
us!), you would do something like:
<tscreen><verb>
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
subscribe freebsd-announce local-announce@somesite.com
^D
</verb></tscreen>
Finally, it is also possible to unsubscribe yourself from a list, get a
list of other list members or see the list of mailing lists again by
sending other types of control messages to majordomo.  For a complete
list of available commands, do this:
<tscreen><verb>
% mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
help
^D
</verb></tscreen>
Again, we would like to request that you keep discussion in the technical mailing
lists on a technical track.  If you are only interested in the "high points"
then it is suggested that you join freebsd-announce, which is intended only
for infrequent traffic.

<sect1><heading>List charters<label id="eresources:charters"></heading>

<p><bf>All</bf>FreeBSD mailing lists have certain basic rules
which must be adhered to by anyone using them.  Failure to comply
with these guidelines will result in two (2) written warnings from the
FreeBSD <url url="mailto:postmaster@freebsd.org" name="Postmaster">,
after which, on a third offense, the poster will removed from all
FreeBSD mailing lists and filtered from further posting to them.
We regret that such rules and measures are necessary at all, but
today's Internet is a pretty harsh environment, it would seem, and
many fail to appreciate just how fragile some of its mechanisms are.

<p>Rules of the road:
<itemize>
<item>The topic of any posting should adhere to the basic charter of the list
      it is posted to, e.g. if the list is about technical issues then your
      posting should contain technical discussion.  Ongoing irrelevant chatter
      or flaming only detracts from the value of the mailing list for everyone
      on it and will not be tolerated.  For free-form discussion on no
      particular topic, the <url url="mailto:freebsd-chat@freebsd.org"
      name="freebsd-chat"> mailing list is freely available and should
      be used instead.</item>

<item>No posting should be made to more than 2 mailing lists, and only
      to 2 when a clear and obvious need to post to both lists exists.
      For most lists, there is already a great deal of subscriber overlap
      and except for the most esoteric mixes (say "-stable & -scsi"), there
      really is no reason to post to more than one list at a time.
      If a message is sent to you in such a way that multiple mailing lists
      appear on the Cc line then the cc line should also be trimmed before
      sending it out again.
      <em>You are <bf>still</bf> responsible for your own cross-postings, no
      matter who the originator might have been.</em></item>

<item>Personal attacks and profanity (in the context of an argument) are
      not allowed, and that includes users and developers alike.  Gross
      breaches of netiquette, like excerpting or reposting private mail
      when permission to do so was not and would not be forthcoming, 
      are frowned upon but not specifically enforced.  <bf>However</bf>,
      there are also very few cases where such content would fit within the
      charter of a list and it would therefore probably rate a warning
      (or ban) on that basis alone.</item>

<item>Advertising of non-FreeBSD related products or services is
      strictly prohibited and will result in an immediate ban if it
      is clear that the offender is advertising by spam.</item>

</itemize>

<p><bf>Individual list charters:</bf>

<p>
<descrip>
<tag/FREEBSD-ADMIN/ <em>Administrative issues</em><newline>
This list is purely for discussion of freebsd.org related issues
and to report problems or abuse of project resources.  It is a closed
list, though anyone may report a problem (with our systems!) to it.

<tag/FREEBSD-ANNOUNCE/ <em>Important events / milestones</em><newline>
This is the mailing list for people interested only in occasional
announcements of significant freebsd events.  This includes
announcements about snapshots and other releases.  It contains
announcements of new FreeBSD capabilities.  It may contain calls
for volunteers etc.  This is a low volume, strictly moderated mailing list.

<tag/FREEBSD-ARCH/ <em>Architecture and design discussions</em><newline>
This is the mailing list for people discussing FreeBSD architectural
issues.  It is a closed list, and not for general subscription.

<tag/FREEBSD-BUGS/ <em>Bug reports</em><newline>
This is the mailing list for reporting bugs in FreeBSD
Whenever possible, bugs should be submitted using the "send-pr(1)"
command or the <url url="http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html"
name="WEB interface"> to it.

<tag/FREEBSD-CHAT/ <em>Non technical items related to the
                   FreeBSD community</em><newline>
This list contains the overflow from the other lists about
non-technical, social information.  It includes discussion about
whether Jordan looks like a toon ferret or not, whether or not to
type in capitals, who is drinking too much coffee, where the best
beer is brewed, who is brewing beer in their basement, and so on.
Occasional announcements of important events (such as upcoming
parties, weddings, births, new jobs, etc) can be made to the
technical lists, but the follow ups should be directed to this
-chat list.

<tag/FREEBSD-CORE/ <em>FreeBSD core team</em><newline>
This is an internal mailing list for use by the core members.
Messages can be sent to it when a serious FreeBSD-related matter
requires arbitration or high-level scrutiny.

<tag/FREEBSD-CURRENT/ <em>Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-current</em><newline> This is the mailing list for users
of freebsd-current.  It includes warnings about new features
coming out in -current that will affect the users, and
instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -current.
Anyone running "current" must subscribe to this list.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-CURRENT-DIGEST/ <em>Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-current</em><newline> This is the digest version of the
freebsd-current mailing list.  The digest consists of all
messages sent to freebsd-current bundled together and mailed out
as a single message.  The average digest size is about 40kB.
This list is <bf>Read-Only</bf> and should not be posted to.

<tag/FREEBSD-STABLE/ <em>Discussions about the use of
FreeBSD-stable</em><newline> This is the mailing list for users
of freebsd-stable.  It includes warnings about new features
coming out in -stable that will affect the users, and
instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -stable.
Anyone running ``stable'' should subscribe to this list.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-DOC/ <em>Documentation project</em><newline> 
This mailing list belongs to the FreeBSD Doc Project and is for
the discussion of documentation related issues and projects.

<tag/FREEBSD-FS/ <em>Filesystems</em><newline> 
Discussions concerning FreeBSD filesystems.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-HACKERS/ <em>Technical discussions</em><newline> 
This is a forum for technical discussions related to FreeBSD.  This
is the primary technical mailing list.  It
is for individuals actively working on FreeBSD, to bring up problems
or discuss alternative solutions.  Individuals interested in
following the technical discussion are also welcome.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-HACKERS-DIGEST/ <em>Technical
discussions</em><newline> This is the digest version of the
freebsd-hackers mailing list.  The digest consists of all
messages sent to freebsd-hackers bundled together and mailed out
as a single message.  The average digest size is about 40kB.
This list is <bf>Read-Only</bf> and should not be posted to.

<tag/FREEBSD-HARDWARE/ <em>General discussion of FreeBSD
hardware</em><newline> General discussion about the types of
hardware that FreeBSD runs on, various problems and suggestions
concerning what to buy or avoid.

<tag/FREEBSD-INSTALL/ <em>Installation discussion</em><newline> 
This mailing list is for discussing FreeBSD installation
development for the future releases and is closed.

<tag/FREEBSD-ISP/ <em>Issues for Internet Service Providers</em><newline>
This mailing list is for discussing topics relevant to Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) using FreeBSD.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-MULTIMEDIA/ <em>Multimedia discussions</em><newline>
This is a forum about multimedia applications using FreeBSD.
Discussion center around multimedia applications, their installation, their
development and their support within FreeBSD
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-PLATFORMS/ <em>Porting to Non-Intel
platforms</em><newline> Cross-platform freebsd issues, general
discussion and proposals for non-Intel FreeBSD ports.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-PORTS/ <em>Discussion of "ports"</em><newline> 
Discussions concerning FreeBSD's "ports collection" (/usr/ports), proposed
ports, modifications to ports collection infrastructure and general
coordination efforts.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-QUESTIONS/ <em>User questions</em><newline> 
This is the mailing list for questions about FreeBSD.  You should not
send "how to" questions to the technical lists unless you consider the
question to be pretty technical.

<tag/FREEBSD-QUESTIONS-DIGEST/ <em>User questions</em><newline>
This is the digest version of the freebsd-questions mailing list.
The digest consists of all messages sent to freebsd-questions
bundled together and mailed out as a single message.  The average
digest size is about 40kB.

<tag/FREEBSD-SCSI/ <em>SCSI subsystem</em><newline> 
This is the mailing list for people working on the scsi subsystem
for FreeBSD.
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-SECURITY/ <em>Security issues</em><newline> 
FreeBSD computer security issues (DES, Kerberos, known security holes and
fixes, etc).
This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical
content is expected.

<tag/FREEBSD-SECURITY-NOTIFICATIONS/ <em>Security Notifications</em><newline>
Notifications of FreeBSD security problems and fixes.  This is not
a discussion list.  The discussion list is FreeBSD-security.

<tag/FREEBSD-USER-GROUPS/ <em>User Group Coordination List</em><newline>
This is the mailing list for the coordinators from each of the 
local area Users Groups to discuss matters with each other and a 
designated individual from the Core Team.  This mail list should
be limited to meeting synopsis and coordination of projects that span
User Groups.  It is a closed list.

</descrip>

      <sect>
        <heading>Usenet newsgroups<label id="eresources:news"></heading>

        <p>In addition to two FreeBSD specific newsgroups, there
          are many others in which FreeBSD is discussed or are
          otherwise relevant to FreeBSD users. <url
          url="http://minnie.cs.adfa.oz.au/BSD-info/bsdnews&lowbar;search.html"
          name="Keyword searchable archives"> are available for
          some of these newsgroups from courtesy of Warren Toomey
          <tt>&lt;wkt@cs.adfa.oz.au&gt;</tt>.

        <sect1>
          <heading>BSD specific newsgroups</heading>

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

        <sect1>
          <heading>Other Unix newsgroups of interest</heading>

          <p><itemize>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix" name="comp.unix"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.questions" name="comp.unix.questions"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.admin" name="comp.unix.admin"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.programmer" name="comp.unix.programmer"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.shell" name="comp.unix.shell"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.user-friendly" name="comp.unix.user-friendly"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.security.unix" name="comp.security.unix"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.sources.unix" name="comp.sources.unix"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.advocacy" name="comp.unix.advocacy"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.misc" name="comp.unix.misc"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.announc" name="comp.os.386bsd.announc"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.app" name="comp.os.386bsd.app"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.bugs" name="comp.os.386bsd.bugs"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.development" name="comp.os.386bsd.development"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.misc" name="comp.os.386bsd.misc"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.os.386bsd.questions" name="comp.os.386bsd.questions"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.bugs.4bsd" name="comp.bugs.4bsd"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes" name="comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.unix.bsd" name="comp.unix.bsd"></item>
            </itemize>

        <sect1>
          <heading>X Window System</heading>

          <p><itemize>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.i386unix" name="comp.windows.x.i386unix"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x" name="comp.windows.x"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.apps" name="comp.windows.x.apps"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.announce" name="comp.windows.x.announce"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.intrinsics" name="comp.windows.x.intrinsics"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.motif" name="comp.windows.x.motif"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.windows.x.pex" name="comp.windows.x.pex"></item>
              <item><url url="news:comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine" name="comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine"></item>
            </itemize>

      <sect>
        <heading>World Wide Web servers<label id="eresources:web"></heading>

        <p><itemize> 
            <item><url url="http://www.FreeBSD.ORG/">                    <bf>- Central Server</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.au.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/">         <bf>- Australia</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.br.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Brazil</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.ca.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Canada</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://sunsite.mff.cuni.cz/www.freebsd.org/"><bf>- Czech Republic</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://sunsite.auc.dk/www.freebsd.org/">     <bf>- Denmark</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.ee.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Estonia</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.fi.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Finland</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.de.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Germany</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.ie.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Ireland</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.jp.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Japan</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.kr.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Korea</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.nl.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Netherlands</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.pt.freebsd.org/">                 <bf>- Portugal</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.se.freebsd.org/www.freebsd.org/"> <bf>- Sweden</bf>.</item>
	    <item><url url="http://www.tw.freebsd.org/freebsd.html">     <bf>- Taiwan</bf>.</item>
          </itemize>
    </sect>
