c1025517b9
Submitted by: Sue Blake <sue@vedanix.welearn.com.au>
99 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
99 lines
4.4 KiB
Plaintext
===================
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Distribution format
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===================
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A typical FreeBSD distribution directory looks something like this:
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ABOUT.TXT bin dict manpages tools
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HARDWARE.TXT compat1x des doc packages
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INSTALL.TXT compat20 floppies ports
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README.TXT compat21 games proflibs
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RELNOTES.TXT info src
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LAYOUT.TXT XF86332
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If you want to do a CDROM, FTP or NFS installation from this
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distribution directory, all you need to do is make a 1.44Mb floppy
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from the floppies/boot.flp image file (see floppies/README.TXT for
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instructions on how to do this), boot it and follow the instructions.
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See INSTALL.TXT for more information.
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If you're trying to do some other type of installation or are merely
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curious about how a distribution is organized, what follows is a more
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thorough description of each item in more detail:
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1. The *.TXT files obviously contain documentation (this file is
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LAYOUT.TXT) and should be read before starting an installation.
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2. The XF86332 directory contains the XFree86 project's 3.3.2 release and
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consists of a series of gzip'd tar files which contain each component
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of the XFree86 distribution.
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3. The bin, dict, des, doc, games, info, manpages, proflibs, and src
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directories contain the primary distribution components of FreeBSD
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itself and are split into smaller files for easy packing onto floppies
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(should that be necessary).
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4. The compat1x, compat20 and compat21 directories contain distributions
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for compatibility with older releases and are distributed as single
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gzip'd tar files - they can be installed during release time or later
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by running their `install.sh' scripts.
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5. The floppies subdirectory also contains the floppy installation images
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and the floppies/README.TXT file should be read for further
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information on using them.
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6. The packages and ports directories contain the FreeBSD packages and
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ports collections. Packages may be installed from the packages
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directory by running the command: ``/stand/sysinstall configPackages''
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or by feeding individual filenames in packages/ to the pkg_add(1)
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command.
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The ports collection may be installed like any other distribution
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and requires about 30MB unpacked. More information on the ports
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collection may be obtained from http://www.freebsd.org/ports or
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locally from ``file:/usr/share/doc/handbook'' if you've installed
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the doc distribution.
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7. Last of all, the tools directory contains various DOS tools for
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discovering disk geometries, installing boot managers and the like.
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It is purely optional and provided only for user convenience.
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A typical distribution (we'll use the info distribution as an example)
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looks like this internally:
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CHECKSUM.MD5 info.ab info.ad info.inf install.sh
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info.aa info.ac info.ae info.mtree
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The CHECKSUM.MD5 file contains MD5 signatures for each file, should
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data corruption be suspected, and is purely for reference. It is not
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used by the actual installation and does not need to be copied with
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the rest of the distribution files. The info.a* files are split,
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gzip'd tar files, the contents of which can be viewed by doing:
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cat info.a* | tar tvzf -
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During installation, they are automatically concatenated and extracted
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by the installation procedure.
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The info.inf file is also necessary since it is read by the installation
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program in order to figure out how many pieces to look for when fetching and
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concatenating the distribution. When putting distributions onto floppies,
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the .inf file MUST occupy the first floppy of each distribution set!
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The info.mtree file is another non-essential file which is provided
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for user reference. It contains the MD5 signatures of the *unpacked*
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distribution files and can be later used with the mtree(1) program
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to verify the installation permissions and checksums against any possible
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modifications to the file. When used with the bin distribution, this can
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be an excellent way of detecting trojan horse attacks on your system.
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Finally, the install.sh file is for use by those who want to install the
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distribution after installation time. To install the info distribution from
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CDROM after a system was installed, for example, you'd do:
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cd /cdrom/info
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sh install.sh
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And that's all there is to it! Each distribution contains its own
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install.sh file for this.
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