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FQA INDEX | FQA 1 - Introduction To 9front | FQA 3 - Hardware
[‡ voightkampff]
The official websites for the 9front project are located at:
• http://9front.org — main website
• http://docs.9front.org — unofficial documentation, community maintained
• http://fqa.9front.org — official documentation, ostensibly fictional
• http://fqa.9front.org
• http://lists.9front.org — mailing lists
• http://man.9front.org — man pages
Somewhat outdated, and not entirely applicable to 9front is the Bell Labs Plan 9 wiki: https://9p.io/wiki/plan9/plan_9_wiki/
Some users have set up their own sites and pages with 9front specific information. As always, do not blindly enter commands you do not understand into your computer.
That said, much valuable information can be found at http://cat-v.org regarding various aspects of UNIX, Plan 9, and software in general.
The 9front project maintains several mailing lists which users should subscribe to and follow. To subscribe to a mailing list, send an e-mail message to list -owner@9front.org, where list is the name of the mailing list. That address is an automated subscription service. In the body of your message, on a single line, you should include the subscribe command. For example:
subscribe
After subscribing, list messages are received from and sent to list @9front.org, where list is the name of the mailing list.
The lists are as follows:
9front — general discussion
9front-commits — read-only log of commits to the 9front mercurial repository
9front-fqa — log of commits to, and discussion about http://fqa.9front.org
9front-sysinfo — read-only log of sysinfo(1) output from user systems
To unsubscribe from a list, you will again send an e-mail message to list -owner@9front.org. It should look like this:
unsubscribe
Before posting a question on the 9front mailing list, please check the rest of this FQA. If asking a question possibly related to hardware, always include the output of sysinfo(1)!
Mailing list archives are available via 9p:
% 9fs 9front
post...
% ls /n/lists
/n/lists/9atom
/n/lists/9changes
/n/lists/9fans
/n/lists/9front
/n/lists/9front-commits
/n/lists/9front-fqa
/n/lists/9front-sysinfo
/n/lists/acme-sac
/n/lists/cat-v
/n/lists/cypherpunks
/n/lists/dlr
/n/lists/harvey
/n/lists/harvey-commits
/n/lists/harvey-issues
/n/lists/inferno
/n/lists/nix
/n/lists/plan9port-dev
/n/lists/sam-fans
/n/lists/sierra31
/n/lists/skunk-works
/n/lists/tscm-l
/n/lists/tuhs
/n/lists/werc
/n/lists/www.gmi
/n/lists/www-talk
/n/lists/www-vrml
Each of these directories contains messages sent to the respective mailing list in mdir format, one message per file. Erik Quanstrom’s nupas upas/fs (now merged with 9front upas) can mount these directories as mailboxes, for reading directly with a mail client.
Note: Opening large mailboxes over a slow 9p link will be very slow.
[‡ 9fans]
9fans — Official mailing list of Plan 9 from Bell Labs.
9front comes with extensive documentation in the form of manual pages. Considerable effort is made to make sure the man pages are up-to-date and accurate. In all cases, 1.) the source, followed by 2.) the man pages, are considered the authoritative source of information for 9front.
You can find all the 9front man pages on the web at the following sites:
as well as on your 9front computer.
In general, if you know the name of a command or a manual page, you can read it by executing man command. For example: man vi to read about the MIPS binary emulator. If you don’t know the name of the command, or if man command doesn’t find the manual page, you can search the manual page database by executing lookman something, where something is a likely word that might appear in the title of the manual page you’re looking for. For example:
% lookman vesa
man 3 vga # vga(3)
man 8 realemu # realemu(8)
man 8 vga # vga(8)
The resulting list is presented in the form of commands that can be highlighted and sent using rio’s mouse button 2 menu.
For many, having a hardcopy of the man page can be useful. To make a printable copy of a man page:
man -t vga realemu | lp -dstdout > vga.ps
or:
man -t vga realemu | lp -dstdout | ps2pdf > vga.pdf
The command man -w prints the location of the man page’s source file:
% man -w vga realemu
/sys/man/3/vga
/sys/man/8/realemu
/sys/man/8/vga
As was mentioned in FQA 0.3.2 - Man pages, Plan 9 man pages are divided into sections based upon the features they describe. For example, the troff source of the io(1) man page is located in section 1, in the file /sys/man/1/io. You can examine this troff source for a simple example of how to format and construct a typical man page.
For additional information, read: How to Write a Plan 9 Manual Page, man(6), troff(1)
[‡ carson]
"I have with Plan 9 Is there a way to"
Remember: 9front developers cannot read your mind. Very detailed information is required to diagnose most serious bugs.
Also remember: It is possible you simply don’t know what you’re doing. If you do not understand how something is done in 9front or how it works, and can’t figure out how to resolve the problem using the manual pages, FQA 8 - Using 9front, or FQA 9 - Troubleshooting, join #9front on irc.freenode.net or use the mailing list (9front@9front.org) to request help.
On the other hand, it’s possible you really found a bug. If so, please file a bug report by sending an e-mail to 9front@9front.org.
A minimum useful bug report contains the following:
• A complete description of what you did.
• A complete description of what you expected to happen.
• A complete description of what happened, instead.
Extra credit:
• The make and model of your computer.
• The URL returned when you run sysinfo -p on the affected system.
The following sub-sections offer some useful tips.
2.4.2.1 - Take a photo of the panic screen
Under some circumstances, you may not be able to recover text directly from a crashed system. In this situation, snap a photo of the screen, including as much of the screen in good focus as possible, and upload the image somewhere where it can be retrieved by developers.
[‡ crash]
2.4.2.2 - Make a stack trace of a crashed process
% hget http://www.jwz.org/blog/feed | rssread
panic: D2B called on non-block c580 (double-free?)
rssread 882285: suicide: sys: trap: fault read addr=0x0 pc=0x000038ef
% acid 882285
/proc/882285/text:386 plan 9 executable
/sys/lib/acid/port
/sys/lib/acid/386
acid: lstk()
abort()+0x0 /sys/src/libc/9sys/abort.c:6
ppanic(p=0xb5a0,fmt=0xbf72)+0x146 /sys/src/libc/port/malloc.c:166
pv=0xc100
msg=0xc310
v=0xdfffee90
n=0x2b
D2B(p=0xb5a0,v=0xc580)+0x5a /sys/src/libc/port/pool.c:966
a=0xc578
poolfreel(v=0xc580,p=0xb5a0)+0x20 /sys/src/libc/port/pool.c:1190
ab=0xc100
poolfree(p=0xb5a0,v=0xc580)+0x41 /sys/src/libc/port/pool.c:1325
free(v=0xc588)+0x23 /sys/src/libc/port/malloc.c:250
nextxmlpull(x=0xc548)+0x334 /usr/sl/src/xmlpull/xmlpull.c:221
nextxmlpull(x=0xc548)+0x2cb /usr/sl/src/xmlpull/xmlpull.c:316
main()+0x34 /usr/sl/src/rssread/rssread.c:159
st=0x1
f=0xc5a8
r=0x0
x=0xc548
_main+0x31 /sys/src/libc/386/main9.s:16
acid:
2.4.2.3 - Make a process snapshot
To collect even more information than a stacktrace, you can also make a full process snapshot, which includes all the memory of the program. The snapshot file can later be analyzed (even on a different machine [even on a different machine of a different architecture]).
% snap 882285 > rssread.snap
We take fixes.
Explain the problem that your change solves. Explain why your change solves the problem well. If applicable, explain how you tested the patch, and give us a way of reproducing the issue.
Before Before making the patch, make sure your system is up to date.
Make your code match the rest of the system. Look at style (6) for a summary of our code style.
If your patch includes new features or flags, be sure to update the documentation.
If the patch is intrusive or significantly changes the design of aspects of the system, it may be worth discussing it first. Email works for this, but IRC works better.
To send changes, email 9front@9front.org with your patch attached inline. Generate the patch using
% bind -ac /dist/plan9front /
% cd /sys/src/your/changed/code
% hg diff . > /tmp/mypatch.diff
and paste the change into your email client of choice.
This project is run by hobbyists. It may take some time for people to respond. If you don’t hear anything for more than a week or so, send a ping.
FQA INDEX | FQA 1 - Introduction To 9front | FQA 3 - Hardware
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