RELEASE(7)					       BSD 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, corresponding 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 release version number.

     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 circumstances (e.g., whether it's an official NetBSD snapshot, or not).

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

     All SHA512 files are SHA512 digests for the various files in that directory, in the format produced by the command: cksum -a SHA512 <file>.

     The SHA512 digest is safer, but MD5 checksums are provided so that a wider range of operating systems 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 incor-
     rectly 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 ``/''.

     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:

     images/	Image files intended for use in installing NetBSD.  There are different types of images for different platforms, and sometimes
		multiple different image types for a single platform.

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

		MD5

		SHA512

		NetBSD-<rel>-<machine>.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.

		NetBSD-<rel>-<machine>-install.img.gz
					    Bootable installation images intended to be written to any drive which appears as an sd(4) type, such
					    as USB flash disks.  These images are created with ``./build.sh ... install-image'' in src.

     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> subdirec-
				tory.

		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 code of the operating system should be put into .../NetBSD-<rel>/source/ using the following layout:

		sets/  Sources for the various system sets.

		       MD5

		       SHA512

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

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

		       src.tgz	     The operating system's userland source code, including all programs, tools, libraries, 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>/ fit the following layout:

		INSTALL.txt    Installation notes, including complete descriptions of files contained within the release hierarchy

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

		INSTALL.html   HTML version

		INSTALL.ps     PostScript version

		binary/        system binaries

			       sets/	installation sets

					MD5

					SHA512

					base.tgz     The base binary distribution.  This set contains the base NetBSD utilities that are necessary
						     for the system to run and be minimally functional.  This set excludes all things listed in
						     the sets described below.

					comp.tgz     The compiler tools distribution.  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 hierarchy.

					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 miscellaneous non-essential files, including dictionaries, the typesettable
						     document set, and various other documentation and example configuration files.

					modules.tgz  This set includes all the kernel modules.

					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 excluding everything
						     contained in the other X11 sets.

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

					xfont.tgz    This set includes the X11 fonts.

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

			       kernel/	suitably named, gzipped kernels

					MD5

					SHA512

					netbsd-GENERIC.gz  A kernel built from the GENERIC kernel configuration file.  This is meant as an example
							   only; different platforms may have differently named kernels.

		installation/  installation helper items

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

					   Images in this directory are bootable, and contain one a kernel, installation tools, and rescue tools.
					   They do not contain installation sets, source sets, or other components of a complete release.

					   Note: These images are only present in the amd64 and i386 distributions.

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   boot.iso	 VGA console

					   boot-com.iso  Serial console

			       diskimage/  disk images, on those platforms that provide them

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   diskimage.gz

			       floppy/	   floppy images, on those platforms that provide them

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   boot1.fs

					   boot2.fs

			       instkernel/
					   installation kernels for platforms that can boot them directly

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   netbsd.gz

			       miniroot/   miniroot images, on those platforms that provide them

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   miniroot.fs.gz

			       misc/	   miscellaneous installation helper utilities, including boot selectors, floppy writing software, other
					   software that runs under foreign operating systems, etc.

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   ...

			       netboot/    network boot programs

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   netboot.gz

			       tapeimage/  tape images, on those platforms that provide them

					   MD5

					   SHA512

					   tapeboot

SEE ALSO

     cksum(1), gzip(1), split(1), tar(1)

HISTORY

     The release manual page first appeared in NetBSD 1.3.

BSD
								 September 6, 2012							       BSD