lfaq
D1386085412
Aa
#(less frequently asked questions)
#
#[Introduction | #INTRODUCTION]
#
# * What is Plan 9?
# * For History Buffs
# * What is in the latest Plan 9 release?
# * What is the names of the “parents”?
# * What is its relation to other operating systems?
# * What are its key ideas?
# * What are the advantages to this approach?
# * What Unix Problems Were Too Deep to Fix?
#
#[Hardware and Software | #HARDWARE_AND_SOFTWARE]
#
# * What platforms does it run on?
# * Does it support symmetric multiprocessing?
# * What about development tools?
# * Where can I get more Plan 9 software?
# * Is it object-oriented?
# * What about application portability?
# * What resources does it need?
# * What GUIs does it support?
# * How do I cut and paste with a 2 button mouse?
# * Does Plan 9 have any Unix-like terminal emulators?
# * What character set does it use?
# * What about security and user authentication?
# * How does it communicate with other systems?
#
#[Installation and Administration | #INSTALLATION_AND_ADMINISTRATION]
#
# * What PC hardware works well with Plan 9?
# * Does Plan 9 run under VMware, qemu or Xen?
# * How do I Install Plan 9?
# * Where can I get the stable and current branches of Plan 9?
# * How do I setup the VGA?
# * What is the Plan 9 equivalent of the Unix find command?
# * How do I control the services that start at boot time?
# * How do I setup network services?
# * How do I shutdown my system?
# * How do I reboot my system?
# * How about autologin (or something like that)?
#
#[General Information | #GENERAL_INFORMATION]
#
# * Where did the name come from?
# * Where did the names for Plan 9 components come from?
# * What is the symbol of the system?
# * Plan 9 esthetics are really nice: colors, fonts, and so on just
# ``look good''. Who did all that?
# * How can I obtain Plan 9?
# * How can I get involved?
# * Where can I get more detailed technical information?
# * I want to stick my face file to the distribution, to whom I must
# address?
# * Are there any Plan 9 user groups?
# * What is 9grid?
# * Can I emulate Plan 9 under Unix (maybe Windows)?
#
#------------------------------------------------------
#INTRODUCTION
#
# * What is Plan 9?
#
#Plan 9 is a (relatively) new computer operating system and
#associated utilities. It was built by the Computing Science Research
#Center of AT&T Bell Laboratories (now Alcatel-Lucent), the same
#group that developed Unix, C, and C++.
#
#Plan 9 is a distributed system. In the most general configuration,
#it uses three kinds of components: terminals that sit on users'
#desks, file servers that store permanent data, and other servers
#that provide faster CPUs, user authentication, and network gateways.
#These components are connected by various kinds of networks,
#including Ethernet, specially-built fiber networks, ordinary modem
#connections, and ISDN. In typical use, users interact with
#applications that run either on their terminals or on CPU servers,
#and the applications get their data from the file servers. The
#design, however, is highly configurable; it escapes from specific
#models of networked workstations and central machine service.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * For History Buffs
#
#The first edition of Plan 9 was released in 1993, and was only
#available to universities.
#
#In 1995 the second edition was available for purchase under a
#shrink-wrap license.
#
#On June 7, 2000, the third release was made available for free
#download under an open source agreement.
#
#The current, fourth edition of the system was released on April,
#2002. At first it was made available under same license as a third
#edition, but on 9 June, 2003, was approved new open source license
#-- Lucent Public License.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What is in the latest Plan 9 release?
#
#The fourth release of Plan 9 provides a major overhaul of the system
#at every level. From the underlying file system protocol, [9P |
#http://9p.cat-v.org], through the kernel, libraries, and
#applications, almost everything has been modified and, in many
#cases, redesigned or rewritten. For more details, see the release
#notes at [http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/release4.html].
#
#While there have not been any "official" releases for some time
#development is very active both inside and outside the Labs and many
#changes and updates have been done all over the system; the ISO
#images in the web site are rebuilt daily based on the latest source
#tree. For updating running systems the replica(1) system is used.
#See [staying up to date] for more details.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What are the names of the “parents”?
#
#Plan 9 is the work of many people. The protocol was begun by Ken
#Thompson; naming was integrated by Rob Pike and networking by Dave
#Presotto. Phil Winterbottom simplified the management of name spaces
#and re-engineered the system. They were joined by Tom Killian, Jim
#McKie, and Howard Trickey in bringing the system up on various
#machines and making device drivers. Thompson made the C compiler;
#Pike, window systems; Tom Duff, the shell and raster graphics;
#Winterbottom, Alef; Trickey, Duff, and Andrew Hume, APE. Bob
#Flandrena ported a myriad of programs to Plan 9. Russ Cox did much
#of the work updating the graphics and creating the new disk and
#bootstrap model as well as providing a number of new commands; David
#Hogan ported Plan 9 to the Dec Alpha; and Sape Mullender wrote the
#new thread library. Other contributors include Alan Berenbaum,
#Lorinda Cherry, Bill Cheswick, Sean Dorward, David Gay, Paul Glick,
#Eric Grosse, John Hobby, Gerard Holzmann, Brian Kernighan, Bart
#Locanthi, Doug McIlroy, Judy Paone, Sean Quinlan, Bob Restrick,
#Dennis Ritchie, Bjarne Stroustrup, Cliff Young, Bruce Ellis, Charles
#Forsyth, Eric Van Hensbergen, and Tad Hunt.
#
#Plan 9 group photo is available at Dennis Ritchie's page:
#[http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/pix/index1.html].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What is its relation to other operating systems?
#
#Plan 9 is itself an operating system; it doesn't run as an
#application under another system. It was written from the ground up
#and doesn't include other people's code. Although the OS's interface
#to applications is strongly influenced by the approach of Unix, it's
#not a replacement for Unix, it is a new design.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What are its key ideas?
#
#Plan 9 exploits, as far as possible, three basic technical ideas:
#first, all the system objects present themselves as named files that
#are manipulated by read/write operations; second, all these files
#may exist either locally or remotely, and respond to a standard
#protocol; third, the file system name space -- the set of objects
#visible to a program -- is dynamically and individually adjustable
#for each of the programs running on a particular machine. The first
#two of these ideas were foreshadowed in Unix and to a lesser extent
#in other systems, while the third is new: it allows a new
#engineering solution to the problems of distributed computing and
#graphics. Plan 9's approach means that application programs don't
#need to know where they are running; where, and on what kind of
#machine, to run a Plan 9 program is an economic decision that
#doesn't affect the construction of the application itself.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What are the advantages to this approach?
#
#Plan 9's approach improves generality and modularity of application
#design by encouraging servers that make any kind of information
#appear to users and to applications just like collections of
#ordinary files. Here are a few examples.
#
#The Plan 9 window system (called rio) is small and clean in part
#because its design is centered on providing a virtual keyboard,
#mouse, and screen to each of the applications running under it,
#while using the real keyboard, mouse, and screen supplied by the
#operating system. That is -- besides creating, deleting, and
#arranging the windows themselves -- its job is be a server for
#certain resources used by its clients. As a side benefit, this
#approach means that the window system can run recursively in one of
#its windows, or even on another machine.
#
#Plan 9 users do Internet FTP by starting a local program that makes
#all the files on any FTP server (anywhere on the Internet) appear to
#be local files. Plan 9 PC users with a DOS/Windows partition on
#their disk can use the files stored there. ISO 9660 CD-ROMs and tar
#and cpio tapes all behave as if they were native file systems. The
#complete I/O behavior and performance of any application can be
#monitored by running it under a server that sees all its
#interactions. The debugger can examine a program on another machine
#even if it is running on a different hardware architecture.
#
#Another example is the approach to networks. In Plan 9, each network
#presents itself as a set of files for connection creation, I/O, and
#control. A common semantic core for the operations is agreed upon,
#together with a general server for translating human-readable
#addresses to network-specific ones. As a result, applications don't
#care which kind of network (TCP/IP, ISDN, modem) they are using. In
#fact, applications don't even know whether the network they are
#using is physically attached to the machine the application is
#running on: the network interface files can be imported from another
#machine.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What Unix Problems Were Too Deep to Fix?
#
#This is best described by Dave Presotto's 9fans post (from 7 May
#2003):
#
#Before Plan 9, we were running lots of Unices held together by a few
#networks, a remote file system (different uid's on each Unix), and a
#bunch of remote execution commands. We hated it since it was much
#harder to manage and use than our old single multiuser machine. We
#wanted an environment that not only put together a lot of boxes and
#made them look like one but which also would make use of the new
#technologies that were appearing (SMP's, heterogeneous
#architectures, juke boxes, ...).
#
#The thought was that the new environment wouldn't change from Unix
#except where we thought it would make our goal easier to build. The
#kernel had to go. The single monitor view of the Unix kernel was a
#real pain for making good use of the SMP's. Therefore, we started
#that from scratch. That didn't mean that the kernel interface had to
#change though. That was a separate topic. Lots of others have
#rewritten the kernel from the ground up while maintaining something
#that looked more like a Unix.
#
#Ken and Rob thought up the idea of building everything around a
#single file system protocol. They also added the idea of a
#subjective namespace to try to unify all the binding ideas of Unix.
#This name space is the one thing underlying Plan 9. We could have
#done the same thing to a Unix kernel (with an infinite amount of
#sweating) but the result would have been the same from the user
#standpoint, i.e., a system that looks very different. The ease which
#with it can be done can be witnessed by the number of failed/stalled
#attempts to add the Plan 9 namespace to Linux ...
#
#Also, we were tired of the general kitchen sink nature of Unix,
#especially of System V. If there were 3 projects or groups to do a
#single thing (like character processing, shared memory, networking,
#...) they all eventually got jammed in. We wanted something simpler
#to work with.
#
#Lastly, we had all developed an extreme allergy to code filled with
##if, #ifdef, #else, #elseif. Getting rid of that cruft by sticking
#differences into separate files/routines required a hell of a lot of
#rewriting.
#
#So the result was a different kernel, with a different design
#philosophy, a similar but different interface, but mostly the same
#old commands.
#
#If you think that Unix was just a single track in comparison, you're
#sadly mistaken. We just made more of a bend than others did.
#
#We are guilty of rewriting commands just for the sake of doing it.
#The reason there was sometimes legitimate, to match our different
#kernel interfaces or whatever. However, it was just as often so we
#wouldn't have to worry about Unix licenses.
#------------------------------------------------------
#
#HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE
#
# * What platforms does it run on?
#
#The Plan 9 kernel and applications are highly portable. Plan 9 runs
#on many architectures, among others: x86, MIPS, Alpha, PowerPC,
#SPARC and ARM.
#
#Data structures and protocols are designed for distributed computing
#on machines of diverse design. Except for necessarily
#machine-dependent parts of the kernel, the compilers, and a few
#libraries, there is a single source representation for everything.
#
#To find out whether Plan 9 supports your hardware, read [The Various
#Ports | http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/4th_edition/papers/port] and
#[Supported PC Hardware].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Does it support symmetric multiprocessing?
#
#Yes, SMP has been always well supported and over the years it has
#been used under many architectures. By default, as it comes out the
#box, the release has SMP operation disabled by an option ``*nomp=1''
#in the plan9.ini config file.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What about development tools?
#
#[Summary of the Plan 9 Development Environment]
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Where can I get more Plan 9 software?
#
#See the [software for Plan 9] page.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Is it object-oriented?
#
#No, not in the conventional sense. It is written in a strict dialect
#of ISO/ANSI C. In a wider sense, its general design of making all
#its ``objects'' look like files to which one talks in a well-defined
#protocol shows a related approach.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What about application portability?
#
#Plan 9 comes with [APE |
#http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/ape.html], a library that makes
#it easy to import POSIX-conforming applications. There is also a
#library that emulates the Berkeley socket interface.
#
#See also [Porting alien software to Plan 9].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What resources does it need?
#
#As might be expected, the answer depends on what you want to do. The
#kernel, the window system, and the basic applications will run
#comfortably on a PC with 32MB of memory.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What GUIs does it support?
#
#The standard interface doesn't use icons or drag-n-drop; Plan 9
#people tend to be text-oriented. But the window system, the editor,
#and the general feel are very mousy, very point-and-click: Plan 9
#windows are much more than a bunch of glass TTYs. The system
#supports the graphics primitives and libraries of basic software for
#building GUIs.
#
#Also see the [screenshots] page.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I cut and paste with a 2 button mouse?
#
#Plan 9 really works well only with a three-button mouse. In the
#meantime, Shift-Right-button will simulate a middle button, but that
#is inadequate for acme's chording.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Does Plan 9 have any Unix-like terminal emulators?
#
#The Plan 9 window system doesn't obey any inline cursor controls,
#since none of the native applications use cursor-addressing. All
#cursor control in rio, Acme and sam is via the mouse.
#
#To see some excellent articles on this important and divisive user
#interface issue read
#[http://www.asktog.com/readerMail/1999-12ReaderMail.html].
#
#If you want to get from Plan 9 to Unix systems, you can run vt in
#one of your windows, telnet/rlogin to Unix, and set the term/TERM
#variable accordingly on the Unix end. See vt(1) for more details;
#note that vt can emulate a VT100 VT220 or ANSI terminal.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What character set does it use?
#
#The character set is Unicode, the 16-bit set unified with the ISO
#10646 standard for representing languages used throughout the world.
#The system and its utilities support Unicode using a byte-stream
#representation (called UTF-8) that is compatible with ASCII. On Plan
#9, one may grep for Cyrillic strings in a file with a Japanese name
#and see the results appear correctly on the terminal.
#
#The encoding known today as UTF-8 was invented by Ken Thompson. It
#was born during the evening hours of 1992-09-02 in a New Jersey
#diner, where he designed it in the presence of Rob Pike on a
#placemat (see Rob Pike's UTF-8 history). It replaced an earlier
#attempt to design a FSS/UTF (file system safe UCS transformation
#format) that was circulated in an X/Open working document in August
#1992 by Gary Miller (IBM), Greger Leijonhufvud and John Entenmann
#(SMI) as a replacement for the division-heavy UTF-1 encoding from
#the first edition of ISO 10646-1. Pike and Thompson turned by the
#end of the first week of September 1992 Plan 9 from Bell Labs into
#the first operating system to use UTF-8 and reported about their
#experience at the USENIX Winter 1993 Technical Conference, San
#Diego, January 25-29, 1993, Proceedings, pp. 43-50. FSS/UTF was
#briefly also referred to as UTF-2 and later renamed into UTF-8, and
#pushed through the standards process by the X/Open Joint
#Internationalization Group XOJIG.
#
#For more details about the history of UTF-8 see:
#[http://doc.cat-v.org/bell_labs/utf-8_history]
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What about security and user authentication?
#
#Plan 9's authentication design is akin to that of MIT's Kerberos.
#Passwords are never sent over networks; instead encrypted tickets
#are obtained from an authentication server. It doesn't have the
#concept of ``set UID'' programs. The file server doesn't run user
#programs, and except at its own console, it doesn't allow access to
#protected files except by authenticated owners. The concept of a
#special ``root'' user is gone.
#
#The fourth edition of Plan 9 includes a substantially reworked
#security architecture, described in the USENIX Security 2002
#conference paper by Russ Cox, Eric Grosse, Rob Pike, Dave Presotto,
#and Sean Quinlan.
#
#[http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/doc/auth.pdf].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How does it communicate with other systems?
#
#The distribution includes a u9fs(4) server that runs on
#Unix-compatible systems and understands the native Plan 9 remote
#file protocol, so that file systems of Unix machines may be imported
#into Plan 9. It also includes an NFS-compatible server that runs on
#Plan 9, so that Plan 9 file systems may be accessed from other
#systems that support NFS. It includes the full suite of Internet
#protocols (telnet, rlogin, ftp).
#
#------------------------------------------------------
#INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION
#
# * What PC hardware works well with Plan 9?
#
#See the [Supported PC Hardware] page.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Does Plan 9 run under VMware, qemu or Xen?
#
#Plan 9 is ported to Xen and runs well under recent versions of qemu.
#
#VMware used to be supported, but was always problematic and the
#latest versions just wont work, VMware wont release the information
#necessary to make Plan 9 run properly on VMware, and thanks to Xen
#and qemu this days there is no reason to use VMware anymore. Plan 9
#does work under Parallels on Mac OS X.
#
#See
#[http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.plan9/msg/cdd9cbdb362d2c0c]
#and [Plan9 with Parallels]
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I Install Plan 9?
#
#See the [installation instructions] page.
#
#(FIXME: should integrate into instructions page)
#
#The installation is designed to be run from a PC.
#
#1. Read Supported PC hardware to ensure your PC meets the
#requirements. 2. Back up your system. 3. Make sure you've backed up
#your system. 4. Read Installing the Plan 9 Distribution. 5. See the
#Staying up to Date page for information on how to obtain the latest
#fixes. 6. Here are some more questions that have been answered on
#the 9fans list:
#
#IP configuration ndb/cs will set the sysname if you setup an
#appropriate entry in /lib/ndb/local. You must specify an ``ether=''
#entry, and the address should be all lower case. If all goes well,
#ip/ipconfig will then configure IP. Name Service If you have having
#problems, first check that ndb/dns is running. It needs to be
#started in /rc/bin/termrc or /rc/bin/cpurc. Also note that only
#fully qualified names are supported, and there isn't a separate
#resolver. Binding and Mounting Devices Note that ``#'' is the shell
#comment character, so you must enclose it in single quotes. For
#example: ``bind -a '#R6' /dev''. Auth Server When booting a
#cpuserver without an auth server, if you give 0.1.0.0 as the auth
#server address instead the cpu server's own address, you won't have
#to wait for it to timeout.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Where can I get the stable and current branches of Plan 9?
#
#The stable branch is an Installation CD image at Plan 9 Additional
#Software page. It can be used: to install Plan 9, to directly boot
#the system from the CD, and to update your Plan 9 installation.
#
#The CD image is built every day from the latest sources.
#
#You can also use replica(1) to update your system either over the
#network or from a downloaded ISO.
#
#See [staying up to date].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I setup the VGA?
#
#If the VGA doesn't work, read the document [Installation
#troubleshooting].
#
#You'll have to find out more about the card so you can configure it.
#The relevant manuals are: vga(3), vgadb(6), vga(8), and 9load(8) and
#also see the [supported PC hardware] page.
#
#Put ``debug=1'' (1st line) in plan9.ini and try again. It may not be
#of much help but will allow to ask a more specific question.
#
#If you have a Radeon card, you can try Philippe Anel's [Radeon
#Drivers].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What is the Plan 9 equivalent of the Unix find command?
#
#The simplest equivalent is: ``du -a . | grep foo''. A useful
#variation is: ``grep foo `{du -a . | awk '{print $2}'''.
#
#See also [UNIX to Plan 9 command translation].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I control the services that start at boot time?
#
#This is controlled by shell scripts, that are roughly equivalent to
#the /etc/rc files on Unix:
#
#/rc/bin/termrc for terminals /rc/bin/cpurc for cpu servers
#
#See cpurc(8) for more details.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I setup network services?
#
#For UDP services, you must start them up in the appropriate cpurc(8)
#file. For TCP or IL services, you must use the listen(8) daemon.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I shutdown my system?
#
#If you're using a diskless terminal or cpu server, simply turn it
#off. More care must be taken when running a file system, either on a
#dedicated file server or underneath a cpu server or terminal.
#Failure to do this may result in lost data.
#
#Halt the disk by typing ``fshalt'' at a shell prompt. This will halt
#the file system and exit rio(1). On some systems, it will also
#return the console to text mode, which can make automated rebooting
#more reliable. See fshalt(8) (or read /rc/bin/fshalt) for details.
#
#Then turn off the computer or type Ctl-Alt-Del (or Ctl-Alt-Reset :).
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How do I reboot my system?
#
#The system can be rebooted by typing ^T^Tr (two control-T's followed
#by ``r''). CPU servers can be rebooted by typing ^P on the console.
#See the cons(3) manual for more details.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How about autologin (or something like that)?
#
#For this purpose you'll need to edit plan9.ini: set up default user
#(terminal) ``user=<username>'' and add string like
#``nobootprompt=local!#S/sdC0/fs''.
#
#See plan9.ini(8)
#
#------------------------------------------------------
#GENERAL INFORMATION
#
# * Where did the name come from?
#
#It was chosen in the Bell Labs tradition of selecting names that
#make marketeers wince. The developers also wished to pay homage to
#the famous Ed Wood's film, Plan 9 From Outer Space, which is about
#aliens who bring earthly corpses back to life.
#
# * Where did the names for Plan 9 components come from?
#
# * The name of default user “[glenda | http://glenda.cat-v.org/]”
# was chosen from first full-length Ed Wood film, “Glen or Glenda”.
# * The original Unix editor was called ed, so Rob Pike called his
# [first screen editor jim | http://man.cat-v.org/unix_8th/9/jim],
# and the next one sam. Sam is actually short for “Samantha”.
# * 8½ is called that as it was Pike's 8 and a halfth windowing
# system -- it also happens to be a film by Fellini.
# * [Alef | http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/2nd_edition/papers/alef/] is
# named analagously to B and C, just choosing from a new alphabet.
# * [Acme | http://acme.cat-v.org] is probably named after Wile E.
# Coyote's equipment supplier, . It's called acme because it does
# everything.
# * The Plan 9 shell is called [rc | http://rc.cat-v.org], because it
# “runs commands”.
# * Mothra is named after the Japanese horror-movie monster. Tom Duff
# picked the name because Netscape's browser is called Mozilla, a
# portmanteau of Mosaic (its progenitor) and Godzilla, and mothra is
# its Plan 9 ``competition''.
# * Kfs -- Ken's File System.
#
#The hermeneutics of naming yields few insights. Things are named
#usually because the name is nice (sam), or there is some private
#reference hard to decode (8½), or in honour (perhaps backhanded) of
#another system (mothra), or an indication of expectation (Plan 9,
#acme), or just because (acid). None of the names tell you anything
#helpful.
#
#Despite the lack of information, those who guess at reasons for
#naming generate volumes of apocrypha. The real reason is usually,
#``because''.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What is the symbol/mascot of the system?
#
#The mascot of the system is white bunny [Glenda |
#http://glenda.cat-v.org].
#
#[Renee French | http://www.reneefrench.com/] drew Glenda.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Plan 9 aesthetics are really nice: colors, fonts, and so on just
# ``look good''. Who did all that?
#
#Here is Rob Pike's 9fans answer (from 16 Sep 2003):
#
#I can take no credit for the fonts except for having the good luck
#to know Chuck Bigelow and Kris Holmes well enough to ask them to do
#a deal with Bell Labs and let us use their fonts. The postscript
#fonts used in the manual, which are related to the screen fonts
#(primarily those used in acme), were the first font designed
#specifically for Unicode. I also rather like the screen fonts, which
#were also maybe the first.
#
#The clean appearance of the screen comes mostly from laziness, but
#the color scheme is (obviously) deliberate. The intent was to build
#on an observation by Edward Tufte that the human system likes nature
#and nature is full of pale colors, so something you're going to look
#at all day might best serve if it were also in relaxing shades.
#Renee French helped me with the specifics of the color scheme (she's
#a professional illustrator and my color vision is suspect), once I'd
#figured out how I wanted it to look. There are still some features
#of the color system that I put in that I think no one has ever
#noticed. That's a good thing, in my opinion; the colors should fade
#away, if you'll pardon the expression.
#
#Having used other systems with different approaches to color
#screens, most especially Windows XP (extra pukey), I think Tufte was
#right.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How can I obtain Plan 9?
#
#The Plan 9 release is available for free download at
#http://plan9.bell-labs.com/plan9/download.html. It includes source
#of the kernel, libraries, and commands for all supported
#architectures. It also includes complete binaries for the x86
#architecture.
#
#See the [download] wiki page.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * How can I get involved?
#
#The best way to learn about the system is to write something that
#other people in the Plan 9 user community could use, or to port the
#system to new platforms.
#
#See the [how to contribute] wiki page.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Where can I get more detailed technical information?
#
#- See the [Papers] page.
#
#- The manual pages are at [http://plan9.bell-labs.com/sys/man/].
#
#- You can find many other documents and papers in the [Plan 9
#section of the cat-v.org doc archive | http://doc.cat-v.org/plan_9/].
#
#- See the rest of the wiki.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * I want to add my face file to the distribution, who should I
# contact?
#
#Geoff Collyer, geoff (at) plan9.bell-labs.com.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Are there any Plan 9 user groups?
#
#See the [user groups] and [9con] page for the known user groups and
#events where Plan 9 can be found.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * What is 9grid?
#
#In short, 9grid is a distributed computing project, which features
#prominently the Plan 9 from Bell Labs operating system. For
#9grid-related questions, read separate 9grid FAQ.
#
#See [9grid].
#
#------------------------------------------------------
# * Can I emulate Plan 9 under Unix (maybe Windows)?
#
#[plan9port | http://swtch.com/plan9port] Is a port of most of the
#Plan 9 user space to Unix.
#
#[9vx | http://swtch.com/9vx/] A Plan 9 kernel that runs on user
#space using vx32.
#
#[v9fs | http://v9fs.sf.net] is a [9P | http://9p.cat-v.org]
#implementation for Linux and BSD.
#
#------------------------------------------------------
|
