[caption="Entering Anaconda, Montana. A city probably named after this installation program. David Cantrell took this picture in 2011. His grey VW Jetta is parked in the background."]
During installation, a target computer's hardware is identified and configured, and the appropriate file systems for the system's architecture are created.
Finally, Anaconda allows the user to install the operating system software on the target computer.
After the installation is complete, you can reboot into your installed system and continue doing customization using https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/InitialSetup[initial setup].
Anaconda is a fairly sophisticated installer.
It supports installation from local and remote sources such as CDs and DVDs, images stored on a hard drive, NFS, HTTP, and FTP.
Installation can be scripted with http://pykickstart.readthedocs.io/en/latest/[kickstart] to provide a fully unattended installation that can be duplicated on scores of machines.
If you are a user having problems with Anaconda, please use the user support forum for your distribution such as http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6[Fedora Forum] or https://lists.fedoraproject.org/admin/lists/users.lists.fedoraproject.org/[the fedora-users mailing list].
If you are an advanced user of Anaconda, you should check out https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/boot-options.html[our reference to Anaconda command line options], https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/kickstart.html[our kickstart file format documentation] and link:anaconda_logging.html[our reference to logging capabilities of Anaconda].
The sign up for the development list is located at https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/anaconda-devel-list[anaconda development list site].
Past discussions can be found in the https://www.redhat.com/archives/anaconda-devel-list[anaconda development archives].
The second list is a user oriented list on how to create kickstart files.
The kickstart list is the place to discuss automated installation issues.
The sign up for the kickstart list is located at https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/kickstart-list[anaconda kickstart list site].
Past discussions can be found in the https://www.redhat.com/archives/kickstart-list[anaconda kickstart archives].
Patch review used to take place on a mailing list dedicated to submitting and reviewing patches.
Patch review now takes place on https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda/pulls[GitHub] via pull requests.
Past discussions of patches can be found in the https://lists.fedorahosted.org/pipermail/anaconda-patches/[anaconda-patches archives], which is the main purpose this mailing list now serves.
For how to contribute to Anaconda and related projects, see the https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html[Contributing to Anaconda and related projects] documentation.
Please note that useful contributions are not limited to submitting patches for source code.
You can also help with https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/testing.html[testing], reporting bugs, improving translations or extending the Anaconda documentation.
[id="developers-guide"]
== Developers' Guide
Anaconda is now almost entirely written in Python 3.
The graphical front end uses GTK+ 3 via gobject-introspection, and as much of the interface as possible is written using the glade interface builder.
The earliest parts of Anaconda are in shell for integration with dracut, and there's still a little bit of C thrown in for interfacing with certain libraries.
Here are some documents if you are planning on working on Anaconda.
* If you want to work on Anaconda, you should start with the Anaconda/SourceOverview[Source Overview], which contains a high level discussion of the source files and what they do.
Then look at the https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/[online documentation] for information on how to test, debug, and develop anaconda.
The primary methods of distributing the Anaconda source are source RPMs in the http://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/development/rawhide/source/SRPMS/[Fedora development tree] and git.
To access the current source code in in non-rpm format, you'll need to install git.
If you would just like to browse the Anaconda git repository via the web, then please use the following https://github.com/rhinstaller/anaconda.git[Anaconda git URL].
Anaconda has an https://github.com/rhinstaller/kickstart-tests[extensive suite of tests] that is still growing.
If you contribute new functionality, it's good practice to include some tests along with that.
We have a https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/testing.html[document that outlines the test suite infratructure and describes how to run tests].
To contribute you should read our https://anaconda-installer.readthedocs.io/en/latest/contributing.html[guidelines for contributing].
[id="reporting-problems"]
== Reporting Problems
If you are having difficulty installing, please file the problem report with your distribution vendor.
Before filing a bug, please read up on link:https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_debug_installation_problems[debugging installation problems], which will tell you how to fill out useful bug reports that will help us quickly solve your problem.
The https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/AnacondaBugWorkflow[Anaconda Bug Workflow] explains how Fedora Anaconda bugs pass through bugzilla, and what all the various statuses really mean.
Additionally, you can use this link:https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&classification=Fedora&component=anaconda&list_id=8454223&product=Fedora&query_format=advanced[Bugzilla query] to find all open Anaconda bugs.
