diff --git a/handbook/eresources.sgml b/handbook/eresources.sgml index 09cfe7fd92..4f91a24101 100644 --- a/handbook/eresources.sgml +++ b/handbook/eresources.sgml @@ -1,297 +1,321 @@ - + - - Additional resources on the Internet + + Resources on the Internet + +

The rapid pace of FreeBSD progress makes print media + impractical as a means for following the latest + developments. Electronic resources are the best, if not the + only way stay informed of the latest advances. Also, since + FreeBSD is a volunteer effort, the user community also serves + as the technical support department and invariably, + electronic mail and Usenet news are the most effective way of + getting technical problems resolved. + + Below, the most important points of contact with the FreeBSD + user community are outlined. If you are aware of other + resources not included, please send them to + doc@freebsd.org so they may be included. - Mailing lists + Mailing lists

Contributed by &a.dufalt;. - 5 May 1995. + 20 Jun 1995. Though many of the FreeBSD development members read USENET, we cannot always guarantee that we'll get to your questions in a timely fashion (or at all) if you post them only to one of the comp.os.386bsd.* 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. There are list charters at the bottom of this document. Please read the list charter before joining a list. We must strive to keep the signal to noise ratio of the lists high, especially in the technical lists. +Archives are kept for all of the mailing lists and can be searched +using the the . The keyword searchable archive +offers an excellent way to find answers to frequently asked questions +and should be consulted before posting a question. + List summary

General lists: The following are general lists that anyone is free to join: List Purpose ---------------------------------------------------------------------- freebsd-announce Important events / milestones freebsd-bugs Bug reports freebsd-chat Non technical items related to the community freebsd-policy Policy issues and suggestions freebsd-questions User questions freebsd-current Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current Technical lists: The following are the technical lists. You should read the charter carefully before joining them, and you should keep your e-mail within the scope of the guidelines. List Purpose ---------------------------------------------------------------------- freebsd-doc Documentation project freebsd-fs Filesystems freebsd-hackers General Technical discussions freebsd-hardware General discussion of FreeBSD hardware freebsd-platforms Porting to Non-Intel platforms freebsd-ports Discussion of "ports" freebsd-security Security issues freebsd-scsi SCSI subsystem Limited lists: The following are limited lists that you will need approval to join. Even though access to these lists is controled, anyone is free to send suggestions and comments to them. It is a good idea establish a presence in the technical lists before asking to join one of these limited lists. List Purpose ---------------------------------------------------------------------- freebsd-admin Administrative issues freebsd-arch Architecture and design discussions freebsd-core FreeBSD core team freebsd-install Installation development CVS lists: The following lists are for people seeing the log messages for source changes in specific areas: 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 How to subscribe -

All mailing lists live on `FreeBSD.ORG', so to post to a list you -simply mail to `<listname>@FreeBSD.ORG'. It will then be redistributed -to mailing list members throughout the world. +

All mailing lists live on FreeBSD.ORG, so to post to a +list you simply mail to listname@FreeBSD.ORG. It +will then be redistributed to mailing list members throughout the +world. To subscribe to a list, send mail to: majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG And include the keyword subscribe [] In the body of your message. For example, to subscribe yourself to freebsd-announce, you'd do: % mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG subscribe freebsd-announce ^D 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: % mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG subscribe freebsd-announce local-announce@somesite.com ^D 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: % mail majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG help ^D Finally, we again request that you keep the technical mailing lists on a technical track. If you're only interested in the "high points", then it's suggested that you join freebsd-announce, which will contain only infrequent traffic. List charters

Administrative issues Important events / milestones 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 list. Architecture and design discussions This is the mailing list for people discussing FreeBSD architectural issues. It is a closed list, and not for general subscription. Bug reports This is the mailing list for reporting bugs in FreeBSD Whenever possible, bugs should be submitted using "send-pr". Non technical items related to the community This list contains the overflow from the other lists about non-technical, social information. It includes discussion about whether Jordan looks like a tune 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. FreeBSD core team This is an internal mailing list for use by the core members. Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current 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. Documentation project This mailing list belongs to the FreeBSD Doc Project and is for the discussion of documentation related issues and projects. Filesystems Discussions concerning FreeBSD filesystems. Technical discussions 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. General discussion of FreeBSD hardware General discussion about the types of hardware that FreeBSD runs on, various problems and suggestions concerning what to buy or avoid. Installation discussion This is the mailing list for people discussing FreeBSD installation development for the 2.0 release. Porting to Non-Intel platforms Cross-platform freebsd issues, general discussion and proposals for non-Intel FreeBSD ports. Policy issues and suggestions This is a forum for policy discussions related to FreeBSD. This includes where FreeBSD is going, how to set up a consortium, whether or not and how to make FreeBSD pay for itself, how to attract more users, and so on. When a topic relates directly to FreeBSD but has little or no technical content then it should be sent to this list. Discussion of "ports" Discussions concerning FreeBSD's "ports collection" (/usr/ports), proposed ports, modifications to ports collection infrastructure and general coordination efforts. User questions 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. SCSI subsystem This is the mailing list for people working on the scsi subsystem for FreeBSD. Security issues FreeBSD computer security issues (DES, Kerberos, known security holes and fixes, etc). - Usenet newsgroups + Usenet newsgroups -

While no newsgroups dedicated to FreeBSD exist, there - are many in which FreeBSD is discussed or are otherwise - relevant to FreeBSD users. +

In addition to two FreeBSD specific newsgroups on Usenet, there + are many other in which FreeBSD is discussed or are otherwise + relevant to FreeBSD users. Keyword searchable archives are + available for some of these newsgroups from + + courtesy of Warren Toomey <wkt@cs.adfa.oz.au>. BSD specific newsgroups

- comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce - comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc + comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce + comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Other Unix newsgroups of interest

- comp.unix - comp.unix.questions - comp.unix.admin - comp.unix.programmer - comp.unix.shell - comp.unix.user-friendly - comp.security.unix - comp.sources.unix - comp.unix.advocacy - comp.unix.misc - comp.os.386bsd.announce - comp.os.386bsd.apps - comp.os.386bsd.bugs - comp.os.386bsd.development - comp.os.386bsd.misc - comp.os.386bsd.questions - comp.bugs.4bsd - comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes - comp.unix.bsd + comp.unix + comp.unix.questions + comp.unix.admin + comp.unix.programmer + comp.unix.shell + comp.unix.user-friendly + comp.security.unix + comp.sources.unix + comp.unix.advocacy + comp.unix.misc + comp.os.386bsd.announce + comp.os.386bsd.apps + comp.os.386bsd.bugs + comp.os.386bsd.development + comp.os.386bsd.misc + comp.os.386bsd.questions + comp.bugs.4bsd + comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes + comp.unix.bsd X-Window system

- comp.windows.x.i386unix - comp.windows.x - comp.windows.x.apps - comp.windows.x.announce - comp.windows.x.intrinsics - comp.windows.x.motif - comp.windows.x.pex - comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine + comp.windows.x.i386unix + comp.windows.x + comp.windows.x.apps + comp.windows.x.announce + comp.windows.x.intrinsics + comp.windows.x.motif + comp.windows.x.pex + comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine - Word Wide Web servers + Word Wide Web servers

- + diff --git a/handbook/handbook.sgml b/handbook/handbook.sgml index 91714ad243..96f6e47aac 100644 --- a/handbook/handbook.sgml +++ b/handbook/handbook.sgml @@ -1,169 +1,168 @@ - + %authors; ]> FreeBSD Handbook <author> <name>The FreeBSD Documentation Project</name> </author> - <date>June 14, 1995</date> + <date>June 20, 1995</date> <abstract>Welcome to FreeBSD! This handbook covers the installation and day to day use of <bf>FreeBSD Release 2.0.5</bf>. This manual is a <bf>work in progress</bf> and is the work of many individials. Many sections do not yet exist and some of those that do exist need to be updated. If you are interested in helping with this project, send email to &a.jfieber; or to the FreeBSD Documentantion Project mailing list <tt><doc@freebsd.org></tt>. </abstract> <toc> <!-- ************************************************************ --> <part><heading>Basics</heading> <chapt><heading>Introduction</heading> &nutshell; &history; &relnotes; <sect><heading>* FreeBSD now and in the future</heading> &install; &basics; <chapt><heading>Installing applications</heading> <sect><heading>* Installing packages</heading> &ports; &porting; <!-- ************************************************************ --> <part><heading>System Administration</heading> - <chapt><heading>Reconfiguring the Kernel<label id="kernelconfig:"></heading> + <chapt><heading>* Reconfiguring the Kernel<label id="kernelconfig:"></heading> <!-- &kernelconfig; --> <chapt><heading>Users, groups and security</heading> <sect><heading>* DES, MD5 and Crypt</heading> <sect><heading>* S/Key</heading> &kerberos; <sect><heading>* Firewalls</heading> <chapt><heading>* Printing</heading> <chapt><heading>* The X-Window System</heading> <chapt><heading>Managing hardware</heading> &scsi; <sect><heading>* Adding and reconfiguring disks</heading> <sect><heading>* Tapes and backups</heading> <sect><heading>* Serial ports</heading> <sect><heading>* Sound cards</heading> - &hw; - <!-- ************************************************************ --> <part><heading>Network Communications</heading> <chapt><heading>Basic Networking</heading> <sect><heading>* Ethernet basics</heading> <sect><heading>* Serial basics</heading> <sect><heading>* Hardwired Terminals</heading> &dialup; <chapt><heading>PPP and SLIP</heading> &ppp; &slipc; &slips; <chapt><heading>Advanced networking</heading> <sect><heading>* Gateways and routing</heading> &nfs; <sect><heading>* Yellow Pages/NIS</heading> &diskless; <sect><heading>* ISDN</heading> <chapt><heading>* Mail</heading> <!-- ************************************************************ --> <part><heading>Advanced topics</heading> ¤t; &ctm; ⊃ &kerneldebug; &submitters; &booting; &memoryuse; &troubleshooting; <!-- ************************************************************ --> - <part><heading>Additional resources</heading> + <part><heading>Appendicies</heading> &bibliography; &eresources; + &hw; &glossary; </book> </linuxdoc> diff --git a/handbook/hw.sgml b/handbook/hw.sgml index f577c96f58..64bfcc5e25 100644 --- a/handbook/hw.sgml +++ b/handbook/hw.sgml @@ -1,45 +1,70 @@ -<!-- $Id: hw.sgml,v 1.1 1995-06-14 18:38:53 jfieber Exp $ --> +<!-- $Id: hw.sgml,v 1.2 1995-06-20 16:29:54 jfieber Exp $ --> <!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project --> -<chapt><heading>* PC Hardware compatibility<label id="hw:"></heading> +<chapt><heading>PC Hardware compatibility<label id="hw"></heading> + + <p>Issues of hardware compatibility are among the most + troublesome in the computer industry today and FreeBSD is by + no means immune to trouble. In this respect, FreeBSD's + advantage of being able to run on inexpensive commidity PC + hardware is also its liability when it comes to support for + the amazing variety of components on the market. While it + would be impossible to provide a exhaustive listing of + hardware that FreeBSD supports, this section serves as a + catalog of the device drivers included with FreeBSD and the + hardware each drivers supports. Where possible and + appropriate, notes about specific products are included. + + As FreeBSD is a volunteer project without a funded testing + department, we depend on you, the user, for much of the + information contained in this catalog. If you have direct + experience of hardware that does or does not work with + FreeBSD, please let us know by sending email to + <tt>doc@freebsd.org</tt>. Questions about supported hardware + should be directed to <tt>questions@freebsd.org</tt> (see + <ref id="eresources:mail" name="Mailing Lists"> for more + information). When submitting information or asking a + question, please remember to specify exactly what version of + FreeBSD you are using and include as many details of your + hardware as possible. <sect><heading>* Core/Processing<label id="hw:core"></heading> <sect1><heading>* Motherboards</heading> <sect2><heading>* ISA</heading> <sect2><heading>* EISA</heading> <sect2><heading>* VLB</heading> <sect2><heading>* PCI</heading> <sect1><heading>* CPUs/FPUs</heading> <sect1><heading>* Memory</heading> <sect1><heading>* BIOS</heading> <sect><heading>* Input/Output Devices<label id="hw:io"></heading> <sect1><heading>* Video cards</heading> <sect1><heading>* Sound cards</heading> <sect1><heading>* Serial ports (including multiport cards)</heading> <sect1><heading>* Parallel ports</heading> <sect1><heading>* Modems</heading> <sect1><heading>* Network cards</heading> <sect1><heading>* Keyboards</heading> <sect1><heading>* Mice</heading> <sect1><heading>* Other</heading> <sect><heading>* Storage Devices<label id="hw:storage"></heading> <sect1><heading>* Disk/tape controllers</heading> <sect2><heading>* SCSI</heading> <sect2><heading>* IDE</heading> <sect2><heading>* Floppy</heading> <sect1><heading>* Hard drives</heading> <sect1><heading>* Tape drives</heading> <sect1><heading>* CD-ROM drives</heading> <sect1><heading>* Other</heading> <sect><heading>* Other<label id="hw:other"></heading> <sect1><heading>* PCMCIA</heading> diff --git a/handbook/submitters.sgml b/handbook/submitters.sgml index 3389f8a917..1e9ab1c55b 100644 --- a/handbook/submitters.sgml +++ b/handbook/submitters.sgml @@ -1,237 +1,236 @@ -<!-- $Id: submitters.sgml,v 1.2 1995-05-18 03:05:22 jfieber Exp $ --> +<!-- $Id: submitters.sgml,v 1.3 1995-06-20 16:29:55 jfieber Exp $ --> <!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project --> <chapt><heading>Contributing to FreeBSD</heading> <p><em>Contributed by &a.jkh;.</em> This guide is intended for those who are moderately familar with FreeBSD and are now to the point where they have some locally developed customizations or fixes to the system which they'd like to incorporate back into the mainstream sources, thus saving the work of having to re-integrate the changes for each subsequent FreeBSD release. Submitting something to the FreeBSD project is also an excellent way of getting your code seriously <em>tested</em>! Many people have developed an original concept far beyond what they might have envisioned at the start just due to the flood of feedback and ideas generated by the many thousands of users of FreeBSD. Contributions are also what FreeBSD lives and grows from, and so your contributions are very important to the continued survival of this communal effort of ours---we're very glad to see you reading this documentation! Submissions to FreeBSD can generally be classified into four catagories: <enum> <item>Ideas, general suggestions, bug reports. <item>Addition, deletion, renaming or patching of existing sources. <item>Significant contribution of a large body of independant work. <item>Porting of freely available software. </enum> A submission in <em>any</em> of these catagories is highly welcomed as they are each, in their own way, quite significant to the project. <sect><heading>Ideas and suggestions</heading> <p>An idea, suggestion or fix can be communicated in one of the following ways: <itemize> <item>An idea or suggestion of general technical interest should be mailed to <tt><hackers@freebsd.org></tt>. Likewise, people with an interest in such things (and a tolerance for a <em>high</em> volume of mail!) may subscribe to the hackers mailing list by sendimg mail to <tt><majordomo@freebsd.org></tt>. - See <ref id="eresources:mailing-lists" - name="mailing lists"> + See <ref id="eresources:mail" name="mailing lists"> for more information about this and other mailing lists. <item>An actual bug report should be filed by using the <tt>send-pr(1)</tt> program. This will prompt you for various fields to fill in. Simply go to the fields surrounded by <tt><></tt>'s and fill in your own information in place of what's suggested there. You should receive confirmation of your bug report and a tracking number. Keep this tracking number and use it in any subsequent correspondence. If you do not receive confirmation in a timely fashion (3 days to a week, depending on your email connection) or are, for some reason, unable to use the <tt>send-pr(1)</tt> command, then you may also file a bug report by sending mail to <tt><bugs@freebsd.org></tt>. </itemize> <sect><heading>Changes to the existing code</heading> <p>An addition or change to the existing source code is a somewhat trickier affair and depends a lot on how far out of date you are with the current state of the core FreeBSD development. There is a special on-going release of FreeBSD known as ``FreeBSD-current'' and made available in a variety of ways for the convenience of developers who wish to actively work on the system. See <ref id="current:" name="Staying current with FreeBSD"> for more information about getting and using FreeBSD-current. Working from older sources unfortunately means that your changes may sometimes be too obsolete to use, or too divergent to allow for easy re-integration. This can be minimized somewhat by subscribing to the <tt><announce@freebsd.org></tt> mailing list, among others, where periodic announcements concerning the current state of the system are made. If you see a change being proposed for which you have a better solution, by all means come forward with your contribution and we will do our very best to evaluate it fairly and perhaps integrate it if it is indeed a better solution. Assuming that you can manage to secure fairly up-to-date sources to base your changes on, the next step is to produce a set of diffs to send to the FreeBSD maintainers for evaluation and possible adoption. This is done with the <tt>diff(1)</tt> command, with the FreeBSD maintainers preferring to receive diffs in `context diff' form. For example: <tscreen><verb> diff -c <oldfile> <newfile> </verb></tscreen> or <tscreen><verb> diff -c -r <olddir> <newdir> </verb></tscreen> See the man page for <tt>diff(1)</tt> for more details on producing both context and recursive context diffs. Once you have a set of diffs that are capable of taking a copy of the original code and bringing it to a state identical to the ``new'' sources (you may test this with the <tt>patch(1)</tt> command), you should bundle them up in an email message and send it, along with a brief description of what the diffs are for, to <tt><hackers@freebsd.org></tt>. Someone will very likely get back in touch with you in 24 hours or less, assuming of course that your diffs are interesting! If your changes don't express themselves well as diffs alone (e.g. you've perhaps added, deleted or renamed files as well) then you may be better off bundling any new files, diffs and instructions for deleting/renaming any others into a <tt>tar</tt> file and running the <tt>uuencode(1)</tt> program on it before sending the output of that to <tt><hackers@freebsd.org></tt>. See the man pages on <tt>tar(1)</tt> and <tt>uuencode(1)</tt> for more info on bundling files through the mail this way. If your change is of a potentially sensitive nature, for example you're unsure of copyright issues governing its further distribution, or you're simply not ready to release it without a tighter review first, then you should send it to <tt><core@freebsd.org></tt> rather than <tt><hackers@freebsd.org></tt>. The core mailing list reaches a much smaller group of people who do much of the day-to-day work on FreeBSD. Note that this group is also <em>very busy</em> and so you should only mail to them in cases where mailing to hackers truly is impractical. <sect><heading>Contributions of new code</heading> <p>In the case of a significant contribution of a large body work, or the addition of an important new feature to FreeBSD, it becomes almost always necessary to either send changes as uuencoded tar files or upload them to our ftp site <url url="ftp://freefall.cdrom.com/pub/FreeBSD/incoming"> where users may log in anonymously and upload their work or download the work-in-progress files left by others. When working with large amounts of code, the touchy subject of copyrights also invariably comes up. Acceptable copyrights for code included in FreeBSD are: <enum> <item>Contributions under the BSD copyright are greatly preferred due to its ``no strings attached'' nature and general attractiveness to commercial enterprises who might then be inclined to invest something of their own into FreeBSD. <item>Contributions under the GNU Public License, or ``GPL''. This is not quite as popular a solution for us, due to the amount of extra effort demanded of anyone using the code for commercial purposes. However, given the sheer quantity of GPL'd code we currently require (compiler, assembler, text formatter, etc), it would be silly to pretend that we couldn't deal with the GPL at all and so we have become more willing to accept code with either the BSD or the GPL copyright. Code under the GPL also goes into a different part of the tree, that being <tt>/sys/gnu</tt> or <tt>/usr/src/gnu</tt>. <item>Contributions coming under any other type of copyright must be carefully reviewed before their inclusion into FreeBSD will even be considered. Contributions for which particularly restrictive commercial copyrights apply are generally rejected, though the authors are always free to make the changes available through their own channels. </enum> To place such a copyright on your work, place the following text at the very beginning of every source code file you wish to protect, replacing the text between the `<tt>%%</tt>' with the appropriate information. <tscreen><verb> Copyright (c) %%proper_years_here%% %%your_name_here%%, %%your_state%% %%your_zip%%. All rights reserved. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer as the first lines of this file unmodified. 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must display the following acknowledgment: This product includes software developed by %%your_name_here%%. 4. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY %%your_name_here%% ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL %%your_name_here%% BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. - $Id: submitters.sgml,v 1.2 1995-05-18 03:05:22 jfieber Exp $ + $Id: submitters.sgml,v 1.3 1995-06-20 16:29:55 jfieber Exp $ </verb></tscreen> For your convenience, a copy of this text can be found in <tt>/usr/share/examples/etc/bsd-style-copyright</tt>. <sect><heading>Porting of software</heading> <p>The porting of freely available software, while perhaps not as gratifying as developing your own package from scratch, is still a vital part of FreeBSD's growth and of great usefulness to those who wouldn't otherwise know where to turn for it. All ported software is organized into a hierarchy know as ``the ports collection''. This collection enables a new user to get a complete overview of what's available in a short time, and with a logical framework. The ports collection also saves considerable space by not actually containing the the majority of the sources being ported. See <ref id="ports:" name="The ports collection"> for more information on using the ports collection and <ref id="porting:" name="Porting applications"> for guidelines on creating new ports. You may also send mail to <tt><ports@freebsd.org></tt>. Whichever way you decide to contribute, we hope you'll find it an enjoyable process and also realize how valuable your contributions are to the project! FreeBSD is one of those great projects where the more we all put in, the more we all get back out of it again, and with enough steady contributions it begins to aquire a momentum of its own. It is through such momentum that mountains are moved!