There are many sources of information about FreeBSD; some are included with this distribution, while others are available on-line or in print versions.
A number of other files provide more specific information
about this snapshot distribution. These files are
provided in various formats. Most distributions will include
both ASCII text (.TXT) and HTML
(.HTM) renditions. Some distributions
may also include other formats such as Portable Document
Format (.PDF).
README.TXT: This file, which
gives some general information about FreeBSD as well as
some cursory notes about obtaining a
distribution.
RELNOTES.TXT: The release
notes, showing what's new and different in FreeBSD
10.4-STABLE compared to the previous release (FreeBSD
10.4-RELEASE).
HARDWARE.TXT: The hardware
compatibility list, showing devices with which FreeBSD has
been tested and is known to work.
ERRATA.TXT: Release errata.
Late-breaking, post-release information can be found in
this file, which is principally applicable to releases
(as opposed to snapshots). It is important to consult
this file before installing a release of FreeBSD, as it
contains the latest information on problems which have
been found and fixed since the release was
created.
On platforms that support bsdinstall(8) (currently amd64, i386, ia64, pc98, and sparc64), these documents are generally available via the Documentation menu during installation. Once the system is installed, you can revisit this menu by re-running the bsdinstall(8) utility.
It is extremely important to read the errata for any
given release before installing it, to learn about any
“late-breaking news” or post-release problems.
The errata file accompanying each release (most likely right
next to this file) is already out of date by definition, but
other copies are kept updated on the Internet and should be
consulted as the “current errata” for this
release. These other copies of the errata are located at
../../../../releases/
(as well as any sites which keep up-to-date mirrors of this
location).
As with almost all UNIX® like operating systems, FreeBSD comes with a set of on-line manual pages, accessed through the man(1) command or through the hypertext manual pages gateway on the FreeBSD Web site. In general, the manual pages provide information on the different commands and APIs available to the FreeBSD user.
In some cases, manual pages are written to give information on particular topics. Notable examples of such manual pages are tuning(7) (a guide to performance tuning), security(7) (an introduction to FreeBSD security), and style(9) (a style guide to kernel coding).
Two highly-useful collections of FreeBSD-related information,
maintained by the FreeBSD Project, are the FreeBSD Handbook and FreeBSD
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions document). On-line versions
of the Handbook and FAQ are always
available from the FreeBSD Documentation
page or its mirrors. If you install the
doc distribution set, you can use a Web
browser to read the Handbook and FAQ locally. In particular,
note that the Handbook contains a step-by-step guide to
installing FreeBSD.
A number of on-line books and articles, also maintained by
the FreeBSD Project, cover more-specialized, FreeBSD-related topics.
This material spans a wide range of topics, from effective use
of the mailing lists, to dual-booting FreeBSD with other
operating systems, to guidelines for new committers. Like the
Handbook and FAQ, these documents are available from the FreeBSD
Documentation Page or in the doc
distribution set.
A listing of other books and documents about FreeBSD can be found in the bibliography of the FreeBSD Handbook. Because of FreeBSD's strong UNIX® heritage, many other articles and books written for UNIX® systems are applicable as well, some of which are also listed in the bibliography.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.