RELEASE(7)          NetBSD Miscellaneous Information Manual         RELEASE(7)

NAME
     release -- layout of NetBSD releases and snapshots

DESCRIPTION
     This document describes the layout of NetBSD releases and snapshots.
     This layout should be consistent between FTP servers and CD-ROMs, except
     possibly the path that leads to the release hierarchy.

     In this document, the following special words have these definitions:

     <machine>       The platform for which the release was built, correspond-
                     ing to the hw.machine sysctl variable, e.g.  i386 or
                     amiga.

     <machine_arch>  The architecture for which a particular installation set
                     was built, corresponding to the hw.machine_arch sysctl
                     variable, e.g.  i386 or m68k.

     <rel>           The target release.

     All README files are descriptions of the various files in directories
     that have ``non-standard'' contents.  There may also be a README file at
     the top-level, describing who built the snapshot and under what circum-
     stances (e.g. whether it's an official NetBSD snapshot, or not).

     All BSDSUM files are historic BSD checksums for the various files in that
     directory, in the format produced by the command: cksum -o 1 <file>.

     All CKSUM files are POSIX checksums for the various files in that direc-
     tory, in the format produced by the command: cksum <file>.

     All MD5 files are MD5 digests for the various files in that directory, in
     the format produced by the command: cksum -m <file>.

     All SYSVSUM files are historic AT&T System V UNIX checksums for the vari-
     ous files in that directory, in the format produced by the command: cksum
     -o 2 <file>.

     The MD5 digest is the safest checksum, followed by the POSIX checksum.
     The other two checksums are provided only to ensure that the widest pos-
     sible range of system can check the integrity of the release files.

     Files that end in .tgz are gzipped tar archives.  This is used in lieu of
     .tar.gz because the software used to download the sets may incorrectly
     auto-unpack files ending in .gz and to accommodate systems which only
     support 3 character extensions to file names.

     All tar archives are relative to the target's / directory, and do not
     include the leading ``/''.

     All compression of release files is to be performed with the command:
     gzip -9.

     The root of the release hierarchy may be the root directory of a CD-ROM,
     but in all other cases it should be .../NetBSD-<rel>/.

     The root of the release hierarchy should contain the following files and
     subdirectories:

     SOURCE_DATE
                A file containing the date, in UTC, of the source code from
                which the release or snapshot was built, in the default format
                produced by the command: date -u.

     iso/       CDROM images in ISO 9660 format, usually created with
                ``./build.sh ... iso-image ...'' after a ``./build.sh -x ...
                release ...'' in src or created with ``./build.sh ...
                iso-image-source ...'' after a ``./build.sh -x ... release
                sourcesets ...'' in src.

                Images in this directory, unlike images in the
                .../NetBSD-<rel>/<machine>/installation/cdrom/ directory,
                should contain file systems that have an internal layout that
                corresponds to a complete release for one or more machine
                types.  If built with ``iso-image-source'', then it will also
                contain a ``source'' directory.  These images are usually
                bootable.

                BSDSUM

                CKSUM

                MD5

                README

                SYSVSUM

                <machine_arch>cd.iso

     shared/    Files shared by two or more machine types.

                <machine_arch>/
                                Files which may be shared by all systems of
                                the same <machine_arch> will be located in
                                .../NetBSD-<rel>/shared/<machine_arch>/ with
                                symbolic links pointing to these files from
                                the <machine> subdirectory.

                ALL/            Files which are completely machine-independent
                                will be located in
                                .../NetBSD-<rel>/shared/ALL/ with symbolic
                                links pointing to these files from the
                                <machine> subdirectory.

     source/    Source codes of the operating system and patches for it should
                be put into .../NetBSD-<rel>/source/ using the following lay-
                out:

                patches/  This directory contains various patch files appro-
                          priate for patch(1).  Other patches may exist for
                          fixing critical problems.

                          BSDSUM

                          CKSUM

                          MD5

                          README

                          SYSVSUM

                          diff-<lastrel>-<rel>.gz
                                                  Diff against the last
                                                  release, usually generated
                                                  by cvs rdiff.  For patch
                                                  releases, diffs against the
                                                  last release are included.
                                                  If the last release was a
                                                  patch release itself, the
                                                  diff is against that patch
                                                  release is included.

                sets/     Sources for the various system sets, based on their
                          modules in the CVS server.

                          BSDSUM

                          CKSUM

                          MD5

                          README

                          SYSVSUM

                          gnusrc.tgz    Contains sources for all GPLed and
                                        possibly other programs that contains
                                        restrictions in their licensing that
                                        prevent others from using these pro-
                                        grams in closed-source environments.

                          pkgsrc.tgz    Package-sources for third party soft-
                                        ware ready to compile. See
                                        pkgsrc/README for more information.

                          sharesrc.tgz  Contains machine-independent data
                                        files that can be shared across archi-
                                        tectures/systems.

                          src.tgz       The operating system's userland source
                                        code, including all programs, tools,
                                        toolchain, etc.

                          syssrc.tgz    Kernel sources for all architectures
                                        plus sources of the tools needed to
                                        build kernels (like config(1)).

                          xsrc.tgz      Source code of the X Window System
                                        used on all NetBSD architectures.
                                        Includes X clients and servers.

     <machine>/
                The binary releases in .../NetBSD-<rel>/<machine>/ follow the
                following layout:

                INSTALL.txt    Installation notes, including complete descrip-
                               tions of files contained within the release
                               hierarchy

                INSTALL.more   pretty version of this, suited for viewing with
                               more(1)

                INSTALL.html   HTML version of this

                INSTALL.ps     PostScript version of this

                binary/        system binaries

                               sets/     installation sets

                                         BSDSUM

                                         CKSUM

                                         MD5

                                         SYSVSUM

                                         base.tgz      The base binary distri-
                                                       bution.  This set con-
                                                       tains the base NetBSD
                                                       utilities that are nec-
                                                       essary for the system
                                                       to run and be minimally
                                                       functional.  It
                                                       includes shared
                                                       libraries for those
                                                       architectures that sup-
                                                       port them.  This set
                                                       excludes all things
                                                       listed in the sets
                                                       described below.

                                         comp.tgz      The compiler tools dis-
                                                       tribution.  This set
                                                       contains the C and C++
                                                       compilers, assembler,
                                                       linker, other toolchain
                                                       components, and their
                                                       manual pages.  It also
                                                       includes the system
                                                       include files
                                                       (/usr/include) , and
                                                       the static system
                                                       libraries.

                                         etc.tgz       This set contains the
                                                       system configuration
                                                       files that reside in
                                                       /etc and in several
                                                       other places throughout
                                                       the file system hierar-
                                                       chy.

                                         games.tgz     This set includes the
                                                       games and their manual
                                                       pages.

                                         kern.tgz      This set includes a
                                                       generic kernel.

                                         man.tgz       This set includes all
                                                       of the manual pages for
                                                       the binaries and other
                                                       software contained in
                                                       the base set which are
                                                       not included in the
                                                       other sets.

                                         misc.tgz      This set includes the
                                                       system dictionaries
                                                       (which are rather
                                                       large), the typeset-
                                                       table document set, and
                                                       manual pages for other
                                                       architectures, which
                                                       happen to be installed
                                                       from the source tree by
                                                       default.

                                         text.tgz      This set includes the
                                                       NetBSD text processing
                                                       tools, including
                                                       groff(1), all related
                                                       programs, and their
                                                       manual pages.

                                         xbase.tgz     This set includes the
                                                       base X11 distribution,
                                                       including manual pages
                                                       and shared libraries
                                                       for those architectures
                                                       that support them, and
                                                       excluding everything
                                                       contained in the other
                                                       X11 sets.

                                         xcomp.tgz     This set includes the
                                                       X11 include files and
                                                       static X11 libraries.

                                         xcontrib.tgz  This set includes bina-
                                                       ries and manual pages
                                                       for programs built from
                                                       the X11 ``contrib''
                                                       sources.

                                         xfont.tgz     This set includes the
                                                       X11 fonts.

                                         xserver.tgz   This set includes the X
                                                       servers and manual
                                                       pages for <machine>.
                                                       Note: this set may not
                                                       be available on some
                                                       platforms.

                               kernel/   suitably named, gzipped kernels

                                         BSDSUM

                                         CKSUM

                                         MD5

                                         README

                                         SYSVSUM

                                         netbsd-GENERIC.gz  A kernel built
                                                            from the GENERIC
                                                            kernel configura-
                                                            tion file.  This
                                                            is meant as an
                                                            example only; dif-
                                                            ferent platforms
                                                            may have differ-
                                                            ently named ker-
                                                            nels.

                installation/  installation helper items

                               cdrom/      CDROM images in ISO 9660 format,
                                           usually created as part of
                                           ``build.sh ... release ...'' in
                                           src.

                                           Images in this directory will typi-
                                           cally be bootable, and will contain
                                           one or more of a kernel, installa-
                                           tion tools, and rescue tools.  They
                                           will not contain installation sets,
                                           source sets, or other components of
                                           a complete release.

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           netbsd-<machine_arch>.iso

                               diskimage/  disk images, for those platforms
                                           that provide them

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           diskimage-rz25.gz

                               floppy/     floppy images, for those platforms
                                           that provide them

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           floppy-144.gz

                               miniroot/   miniroot images, for those plat-
                                           forms that provide them

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           miniroot.gz

                               misc/       miscellaneous installation helper
                                           utilities, including boot selec-
                                           tors, floppy writing software,
                                           other software that runs under for-
                                           eign operating systems, etc.

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           ...

                               netboot/    network boot programs

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           netboot.gz

                               tapeimage/  tape images, for those platforms
                                           that provide them

                                           BSDSUM

                                           CKSUM

                                           MD5

                                           README

                                           SYSVSUM

                                           tapeimage-hp9144.gz

SEE ALSO
     cksum(1), date(1), gzip(1), split(1), tar(1)

HISTORY
     The release manual page first appeared in NetBSD 1.3.

NetBSD 5.0_STABLE               August 30, 2007              NetBSD 5.0_STABLE
