This is an archive of past FreeBSD releases; it's part of the FreeBSD Documentation Archive.

FreeBSD Handbook

FreeBSD Handbook

The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 by The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Welcome to FreeBSD! This handbook covers the installation and day to day use of FreeBSD Release 4.3. This manual is a work in progress and is the work of many individuals. Many sections do not yet exist and some of those that do exist need to be updated. If you are interested in helping with this project, send email to the FreeBSD documentation project mailing list . The latest version of this document is always available from the FreeBSD World Wide Web server. It may also be downloaded in a variety of formats and compression options from the FreeBSD FTP server or one of the numerous mirror sites. If you would prefer to have a hard copy of the handbook, you can purchase one at the FreeBSD Mall. You may also want to Search the Handbook.

Table of Contents
I. Getting Started
1. Introduction
1.1. Synopsis
1.2. Welcome to FreeBSD!
1.3. About the FreeBSD Project
2. Installing FreeBSD
2.1. Synopsis
2.2. Installation Guide
2.3. Supported Hardware
2.4. Troubleshooting
3. Unix Basics
3.1. Synopsis
3.2. Permissions
3.3. Directory Structures
3.4. Shells
3.5. Text Editors
3.6. For More Information...
4. Installing Applications: Packages and Ports
4.1. Synopsis
4.2. Finding your application
4.3. * Using the Packages System
4.4. Using the Ports Collection
4.5. Troubleshooting
4.6. Advanced Topics
II. System Administration
5. The FreeBSD Booting Process
5.1. Synopsis
5.2. The Boot Blocks: Bootstrap Stages 1 and 2
5.3. Loader: Bootstrap Stage Three
5.4. Kernel Interaction During Boot
5.5. Init: Process Control Initialization
5.6. Shutdown Sequence
6. Users and Basic Account Management
6.1. Synopsis
6.2. The Superuser Account
6.3. System Accounts
6.4. User Accounts
6.5. Modifying Accounts
6.6. Limiting Users
6.7. Personalizing Users
7. Configuring the FreeBSD Kernel
7.1. Synopsis
7.2. Why Build a Custom Kernel?
7.3. Building and Installing a Custom Kernel
7.4. The Configuration File
7.5. Making Device Nodes
7.6. If Something Goes Wrong
8. Security
8.1. Synopsis
8.2. Introduction
8.3. Securing FreeBSD
8.4. DES, MD5, and Crypt
8.5. S/Key
8.6. Kerberos
8.7. Firewalls
8.8. OpenSSL
8.9. IPsec
9. Printing
9.1. Synopsis
9.2. Introduction
9.3. Basic Setup
9.4. Advanced Printer Setup
9.5. Using Printers
9.6. Alternatives to the Standard Spooler
9.7. Troubleshooting
10. Disks
10.1. Synopsis
10.2. BIOS Drive Numbering
10.3. Disk Naming
10.4. Mounting and Unmounting Filesystems
10.5. Adding Disks
10.6. Virtual Disks: Network, Memory, and File-Based Filesystems
10.7. Disk Quotas
11. Backups
11.1. Synopsis
11.2. Tape Media
11.3. Backup Programs
11.4. What about Backups to Floppies?
12. The X Window System
12.1. Synopsis
12.2. Overview
12.3. Installing XFree86
12.4. Using Fonts in XFree86
13. Localization - I18N/L10N Usage and Setup
13.1. Synopsis
13.2. The Basics
13.3. Using Localization
13.4. Advanced Topics
13.5. Localizing FreeBSD to Specific Languages
14. Sound
14.1. Synopsis
14.2. Locating the Correct Device
14.3. Recompiling the Kernel
14.4. Creating and Testing the Device Nodes
14.5. Common Problems
III. Network Communications
15. Serial Communications
15.1. Synopsis
15.2. Serial Basics
15.3. Terminals
15.4. Dial-in Service
15.5. Dial-out Service
15.6. Setting Up the Serial Console
16. PPP and SLIP
16.1. Synopsis
16.2. Using User PPP
16.3. Using Kernel PPP
16.4. Using PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE)
16.5. Using SLIP
17. Advanced Networking
17.1. Synopsis
17.2. Gateways and Routes
17.3. Bridging
17.4. NFS
17.5. Diskless Operation
17.6. ISDN
17.7. NIS/YP
17.8. DHCP
17.9. DNS
18. Electronic Mail
18.1. Synopsis
18.2. Using Electronic Mail
18.3. Troubleshooting
18.4. Advanced Topics
IV. Advanced topics
19. The Cutting Edge
19.1. Synopsis
19.2. -CURRENT vs. -STABLE
19.3. Synchronizing Your Source
19.4. Using make world
20. Contributing to FreeBSD
20.1. What is Needed
20.2. How to Contribute
20.3. Donors Gallery
20.4. Core Team Alumni
20.5. Development Team Alumni
20.6. Derived Software Contributors
20.7. Additional FreeBSD Contributors
20.8. 386BSD Patch Kit Patch Contributors
21. Source Tree Guidelines and Policies
21.1. MAINTAINER on Makefiles
21.2. Contributed Software
21.3. Encumbered Files
21.4. Shared Libraries
22. Adding New Kernel Configuration Options
22.1. What's a Kernel Option, Anyway?
22.2. Now What Do I Have to Do for it?
23. Kernel Debugging
23.1. Debugging a Kernel Crash Dump with gdb
23.2. Debugging a Crash Dump with DDD
23.3. Post-Mortem Analysis of a Dump
23.4. On-Line Kernel Debugging Using DDB
23.5. On-Line Kernel Debugging Using Remote GDB
23.6. Debugging Loadable Modules Using GDB
23.7. Debugging a Console Driver
24. Linux Binary Compatibility
24.1. Synopsis
24.2. Installation
24.3. Installing Mathematica
24.4. Installing Oracle
24.5. Advanced Topics
25. FreeBSD Internals
25.1. DMA: What it is and How it Works
25.2. The FreeBSD VM System
25.3. IPv6/IPsec Implementation
V. Appendices
A. Obtaining FreeBSD
A.1. CDROM Publishers
A.2. FTP Sites
A.3. Anonymous CVS
A.4. Using CTM
A.5. Using CVSup
A.6. AFS Sites
B. Bibliography
B.1. Books & Magazines Specific to FreeBSD
B.2. Users' Guides
B.3. Administrators' Guides
B.4. Programmers' Guides
B.5. Operating System Internals
B.6. Security Reference
B.7. Hardware Reference
B.8. UNIX History
B.9. Magazines and Journals
C. Resources on the Internet
C.1. Mailing Lists
C.2. Usenet Newsgroups
C.3. World Wide Web Servers
C.4. Email Addresses
C.5. Shell Accounts
D. FreeBSD Project Staff
D.1. The FreeBSD Core Team
D.2. The FreeBSD Developers
D.3. The FreeBSD Documentation Project
D.4. Who is Responsible for What
E. PGP Keys
E.1. Officers
E.2. Core Team Members
E.3. Developers
F. PC Hardware compatibility
F.1. Resources on the Internet
F.2. Sample Configurations
F.3. Core/Processing
F.4. Input/Output Devices
F.5. Storage Devices
F.6. * Other
List of Tables
10-1. Physical Disk Naming Conventions
List of Examples
4-1. Downloading and installing in multiple steps
5-1. boot0 screenshot
5-2. boot2 screenshot
5-3. An insecure console in /etc/ttys
6-1. Changing the configuration for adduser
6-2. rmuser interactive account removal
6-3. Interactive chpass by Superuser
6-4. Interactive chpass by Normal User
6-5. passwd
10-1. Using vnconfig to mount an existing filesystem image
10-2. Creating a New File-Backed Disk with vnconfig
10-3. md memory disk
17-1. Branch office or Home network
17-2. Head office or other lan
A-1. Checking out something from -CURRENT ( ls(1)) and deleting it again:
A-2. Checking out the version of ls(1) in the 3.X-STABLE branch:
A-3. Creating a list of changes (as unified diffs) to ls(1)
A-4. Finding out what other module names can be used:
    Next
    Getting Started

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.