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.. -*- mode: rst -*-

.. _unsorted-help:

================
Ways to get help
================

Interactive Help
================

* [wiki:IRCChannel IRC Channel, with indexed archives]
* [wiki:MailingList Mailing list, with indexed archives]

Note that the IRC channel tends to be much busier than the mailing list; use whichever seems most appropriate for your query, but don't let the lack of mailing list activity make you think the project isn't active.

Frequently Asked Questions
==========================

* [wiki:FAQ The FAQ]

Examples
========

* There are examples sprinkled throughout this wiki; we should link to them from here.
* The [http://www.fsf.org Free Software Foundation] is (very slowly) working towards having configurations for the majority of the machines it administers available via [http://config.fsf.org config.fsf.org]. This is a tie-in with the [http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/ Franklin Street Statement on Freedom and Network Services] (FSF offices are on Franklin Street). Documentation on how to have a public access Bcfg2 configuration repository will be at PublicRepository.

Manuals
=======

* The current canonical source of documentation are pages on this wiki ([wiki:UsingBcfg2]). Please mail the MailingList for editor access to this wiki.
* There is a printed manual in the SAGE short topics series, "!#19: Configuration Management with Bcfg2", that you can [https://db.usenix.org/cgi-bin/sage/booklets/order.cgi order] for $20 (or get for free if you are a [http://www.sage.org/index.html SAGE] member and haven't gotten a booklet yet during your current membership year). The book includes documentation up to and including most features in Bcfg2 0.9.6. Note that all proceeds from the sale of this book go to SAGE.

FLOSS Manual Project
====================

A project is getting started to make a user-contributed manual using the [http://en.flossmanuals.net/ FLOSS Manuals] web site and tools. The intention is for this manual to be based on but not a verbatim copy of the information on the wiki, formatted in a way that is easier for new users to read, and written mostly by users of Bcfg2, rather than the authors of Bcfg2. This manual will also be free (as in freedom and price).

One important point is that new contributors can get edit access to the manual in about a minute, and the manual is edited via WYSIWYG tools, so there should be pretty much no barrier for new manual authors to get started.

There will be an announcement to the mailing list about this soon.

If you are seriously interested in dedicating time to this manual, it would make sense to read the [http://en.flossmanuals.net/FLOSSManuals FLOSS Manuals Manual] (free online) and the [https://db.usenix.org/cgi-bin/sage/booklets/order.cgi Configuration Management with Bcfg2] manual ($20). If you are willing to commit time to manual writing, would like physical copies of these manuals, and purchasing them would be a financial hardship for you, email [http://pobox.com/~dclark Danny Clark] at dclark@pobox.com (ping djbclark on [wiki:IRCChannel #bcfg2 irc] if you don't get a reply) with your postal address (don't be shy, I already bought a bunch of these, and they aren't doing much good sitting on my shelf :-).

You can get to the Bcfg2 FLOSS Manual at http://docs.bcfg2.org (which just redirects to http://en.flossmanuals.net/bin/view/BCFG2).