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FQA INDEX | FQA 1 - Introduction To 9front | FQA 3 - Hardware

FQA 1 - Introduction To 9front

FQA 3 - Hardware

FQA 2 - Getting To Know 9front

[‡ voightkampff]

2.1 - Web Pages

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Somewhat outdated, and not entirely applicable to 9front is the Bell Labs Plan 9 wiki: https://9p.io/wiki/plan9/plan_9_wiki/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.

2.2 - Mailing Lists

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:

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 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

http://man.9front.org/1/sysinfo

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)!

http://man.9front.org/1/sysinfo

2.2.1 - Mailing List Archives

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.

mdir

nupas

Note: Opening large mailboxes over a slow 9p link will be very slow.

2.2.2 - Other useful mailing lists

[‡ 9fans]

9fans — Official mailing list of Plan 9 from Bell Labs.

9fans

2.3 - Manual Pages

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:

http://man.9front.org

http://felloff.net/sys/man

http://man.aiju.de

http://man.cat-v.org/9front

http://plan9.stanleylieber.com/man

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:

MIPS binary emulator.

% 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

2.3.1 - How do I display a man page source file?

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

2.3.2 - How do I write my own manual page?

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.

fqa0.gmi

http://man.9front.org/1/io

http://code.9front.org/hg/plan9front/file/9d875116b400/sys/man/1/io

For additional information, read: How to Write a Plan 9 Manual Page, man(6), troff(1)

http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/misc/man_page_writing_howto

http://man.9front.org/6/man

http://man.9front.org/1/troff

2.4 - Reporting Bugs

[‡ 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.

manual pages,

fqa8.gmi

fqa9.gmi

mailing list (9front@9front.org)

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.

9front@9front.org

2.4.1 - Your bug report SUCKS

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.

2.4.2 - How do I get more useful info for developers?

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

2.5 - Sending Fixes

We take fixes.

2.5.1 - How do I write good patches?

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.

http://man.9front.org/6/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.

2.5.2 - How do I send in my patches?

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

FQA INDEX

FQA 1 - Introduction To 9front

FQA 3 - Hardware