freebsd-tips revision 174425
1This fortune brought to you by: 2$FreeBSD: head/games/fortune/datfiles/freebsd-tips 174425 2007-12-07 22:41:39Z dougb $ 3% 4Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate 5a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group. 6 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 7% 8By pressing "Scroll Lock" you can use the arrow keys to scroll backward 9through the console output. Press "Scroll Lock" again to turn it off. 10% 11Can't remember if you've installed a certain port or not? Try "pkg_info 12-Ix port_name". 13% 14Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's 15the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more. 16 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 17% 18Forget how to spell a word or a variation of a word? Use 19 20 look portion_of_word_you_know 21 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 22% 23Forget what directory you are in? Type "pwd". 24 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 25% 26Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox 27Easter, use "ncal -o" instead. 28 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 29% 30FreeBSD is started up by the program 'init'. The first thing init does when 31starting multiuser mode (ie, starting the computer up for normal use) is to 32run the shell script /etc/rc. By reading /etc/rc and the /etc/rc.d/ scripts, 33you can learn a lot about how the system is put together, which again will 34make you more confident about what happens when you do something with it. 35% 36Handy bash(1) prompt: PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ " 37 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 38% 39Having trouble using fetch through a firewall? Try setting the environment 40variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see fetch(3) for more details. 41% 42If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can 43reinstall it either with /usr/sbin/sysinstall or with boot0cfg(8). See 44"man boot0cfg" for details. 45% 46If you accidentally end up inside vi, you can quit it by pressing Escape, colon 47(:), q (q), bang (!) and pressing return. 48% 49If you are in the C shell and have just installed a new program, you won't 50be able to run it unless you first type "rehash". 51 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 52% 53If you are running xterm, the default TERM variable will be 'xterm'. If you 54set this environment variable to 'xterm-color' instead, a lot of programs will 55use colors. You can do this by 56 57 TERM=xterm-color; export TERM 58 59in Bourne-derived shells, and 60 61 setenv TERM xterm-color 62 63in csh-derived shells. 64% 65If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with 66 67 xset b off 68% 69If you have a CD-ROM drive in your machine, you can make the CD-ROM that is 70presently inserted available by typing 'mount /cdrom' as root. The CD-ROM 71will be available under /cdrom/. Remember to do 'umount /cdrom' before 72removing the CD-ROM (it will usually not be possible to remove the CD-ROM 73without doing this.) 74 75Note: This tip may not work in all configurations. 76% 77If you need a reminder to leave your terminal, type "leave +hhmm" where 78"hhmm" represents in how many hours and minutes you need to leave. 79 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 80% 81If you need to ask a question on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list then 82 83 http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/\ 84 freebsd-questions/index.html 85 86contains lots of useful advice to help you get the best results. 87% 88If you `set filec' (file completion) in tcsh and write a part of the 89filename, pressing TAB will show you the available choices when there 90is more than one, or complete the filename if there's only one match. 91% 92If you `set watch = (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when 93someone logs in or out of your system. 94% 95If you use the C shell, add the following line to the .cshrc file in your 96home directory to prevent core files from being written to disk: 97 98 limit coredumpsize 0 99 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 100% 101If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in 102kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your 103environment to 'K'. You can also use 'M' for Megabytes or 'G' for 104Gigabytes. If you want df(1) to automatically select the best size 105then use 'df -h'. 106% 107If you want to play CDs with FreeBSD, a utility for this is already included. 108Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more. (You may need to set the CDROM 109environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.) 110% 111If you want to quickly check for duplicate package/port installations, 112try the following pkg_info command. 113 114 pkg_info | sort | sed -e 's/-[0-9].*$//' | \ 115 uniq -c | grep -v '^[[:space:]]*1' 116% 117If you'd like to keep track of applications in the FreeBSD ports tree, take a 118look at FreshPorts; 119 120 http://www.freshports.org/ 121% 122In order to make fetch (the FreeBSD downloading tool) ask for 123username/password when it encounters a password-protected web page, you can set 124the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'. 125% 126In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this: 127 128 grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...] 129 130This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string. grep can 131also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details. 132% 133In order to support national characters for European languages in tools like 134less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment 135variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.ISO8859-1'. 136% 137In tcsh, you can `set autolist' to have the shell automatically show 138all the possible matches when doing filename/directory expansion. 139% 140"man firewall" will give advice for building a FreeBSD firewall 141 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 142% 143"man hier" will explain the way FreeBSD filesystems are normally laid out. 144 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 145% 146Man pages are divided into section depending on topic. There are 9 different 147sections numbered from 1 (General Commands) to 9 (Kernel Developer's Manual). 148You can get an introduction to each topic by typing 149 150 man <number> intro 151 152In other words, to get the intro to general commands, type 153 154 man 1 intro 155% 156"man ports" gives many useful hints about installing FreeBSD ports. 157% 158"man security" gives very good advice on how to tune the security of your 159FreeBSD system. 160% 161"man tuning" gives some tips how to tune performance of your FreeBSD system. 162 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 163% 164Need to do a search in a manpage or in a file you've sent to a pager? Use 165"/search_word". To repeat the same search, type "n" for next. 166 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 167% 168Need to find the location of a program? Use "locate program_name". 169 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 170% 171Need to leave your terminal for a few minutes and don't want to logout? 172Use "lock -p". When you return, use your password as the key to unlock the 173terminal. 174 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 175% 176Need to print a manpage? Use 177 178 man name_of_manpage | col -bx | lpr 179 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 180% 181Need to quickly empty a file? Use ": > filename". 182 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 183% 184Need to quickly return to your home directory? Type "cd". 185 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 186% 187Need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try 188 189 tr -d \\r < dosfile > newfile 190 -- Originally by Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 191% 192Need to see the calendar for this month? Simply type "cal". To see the 193whole year, type "cal -y". 194 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 195% 196Need to see which daemons are listening for connection requests? Use 197"sockstat -4l" for IPv4, and "sockstat -l" for IPv4 and IPv6. 198 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 199% 200Need to see your routing table? Type "netstat -rn". The entry with the G 201flag is your gateway. 202 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 203% 204Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ ' 205 -- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com> 206% 207Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '[%B%m%b] %B%~%b%# ' 208% 209Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%m %# ' 210% 211Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m%# ' 212% 213Over quota? "du -s * | sort -n " will give you a sorted list of your 214directory sizes. 215 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 216% 217ports/net/netcat port is useful not only for redirecting input/output 218to TCP or UDP connections, but also for proxying them with inetd(8). 219% 220sh (the default Bourne shell in FreeBSD) supports command-line editing. Just 221``set -o emacs'' or ``set -o vi'' to enable it. 222% 223Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# ' 224% 225The default editor in FreeBSD is vi, which is efficient to use when you have 226learned it, but somewhat user-unfriendly. To use ee (an easier but less 227powerful editor) instead, set the environment variable EDITOR to /usr/bin/ee 228% 229Time to change your password? Type "passwd" and follow the prompts. 230 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 231% 232To change an environment variable in /bin/sh use: 233 234 $ VARIABLE="value" 235 $ export VARIABLE 236% 237To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value" 238where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value. 239% 240To clear the screen, use "clear". To re-display your screen buffer, press 241the scroll lock key and use your page up button. When you're finished, 242press the scroll lock key again to get your prompt back. 243 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 244% 245To determine whether a file is a text file, executable, or some other type 246of file, use 247 248 file filename 249 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 250% 251To do a fast search for a file, try 252 253 locate filename 254 255locate uses a database that is updated every Saturday (assuming your computer 256is running FreeBSD at the time) to quickly find files based on name only. 257% 258To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl-U". 259 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 260% 261To find out the hostname associated with an IP address, use 262 263 dig -x IP_address 264 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 265% 266To obtain a neat PostScript rendering of a manual page, use ``-t'' switch 267of the man(1) utility: ``man -t <topic>''. For example: 268 269 man -t grep > grep.ps # Save the PostScript version to a file 270or 271 man -t printf | lp # Send the PostScript directly to printer 272% 273To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename". 274 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 275% 276To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use 277"zcat" or "zmore" to view it. 278 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 279% 280To repeat the last command in the C shell, type "!!". 281 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 282% 283To save disk space in your home directory, compress files you rarely 284use with "gzip filename". 285 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 286% 287To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example 288 289 find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls 290 291will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name. 292 -- Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com> 293% 294To see all of the directories on your FreeBSD system, type 295 296 ls -R / | more 297 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 298% 299To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the 300command name. 301 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 302% 303To see how much disk space is left on your partitions, use 304 305 df -h 306 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 307% 308To see the 10 largest files on a directory or partition, use 309 310 du /partition_or_directory_name | sort -rn | head 311 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 312% 313To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type 314"ifconfig -u". 315 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 316% 317To see the last 10 lines of a long file, use "tail filename". To see the 318first 10 lines, use "head filename". 319 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 320% 321To see the last time that you logged in, use lastlogin(8). 322 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 323% 324To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type 325 326 ifconfig -a 327 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 328% 329To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8). If it has 330been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot. 331 -- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com> 332% 333Want colour in your directory listings? Use "ls -G". "ls -F" is also useful, 334and they can be combined as "ls -FG". 335% 336Want to find a specific port, just type the following under /usr/ports, 337or one its subdirectories: 338 339 "make search name=<port-name>" 340 or 341 "make search key=<keyword>" 342% 343Want to know how many words, lines, or bytes are contained in a file? Type 344"wc filename". 345 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 346% 347Want to see how much virtual memory you're using? Just type "swapinfo" to 348be shown information about the usage of your swap partitions. 349% 350Want to strip UTF-8 BOM(Byte Order Mark) from given files? 351 352 sed -e '1s/^\xef\xbb\xbf//' < bomfile > newfile 353% 354Want to use sed(1) to edit a file in place? Well, to replace every 'e' with 355an 'o', in a file named 'foo', you can do: 356 357 sed -i.bak s/e/o/g foo 358 359And you'll get a backup of the original in a file named 'foo.bak', but if you 360want no backup: 361 362 sed -i '' s/e/o/g foo 363% 364When you've made modifications to a file in vi(1) and then find that 365you can't write it, type ``<ESC>!rm -f %'' then ``:w!'' to force the 366write 367 368This won't work if you don't have write permissions to the directory 369and probably won't be suitable if you're editing through a symbolic link. 370% 371You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your 372computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'. To get a list of what you can 373adjust, just type 'mixer'. 374% 375You can automatically download and install binary packages by doing 376 377 pkg_add -r <URL> 378 379where you replace <URL> with the URL to the package. This will also 380automatically install the packages the package you download is dependent on 381(ie, the packages it needs in order to work.) 382% 383You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like 384the following to /etc/rc.conf: 385 386 allscreens="80x30" 387 388You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text 389modes. 390 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 391% 392You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'. 393% 394You can get a good generic server install by using the 395instant-server port/package. If you have ports installed, you can 396install it by doing 397 398 # cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-server 399 # make install && make clean 400 401as root. This will install a collection of packages that is appropriate for 402running a "generic" server. 403% 404You can get a good standard workstation install by using the 405instant-workstation port/package. If you have ports installed, you can 406install it by doing 407 408 # cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation 409 # make install && make clean 410 411as root. This will install a collection of packages that is convenient to 412have on a workstation. 413% 414You can install extra packages for FreeBSD by using the ports system. 415If you have installed it, you can download, compile, and install software by 416just typing 417 418 # cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname> 419 # make install && make clean 420 421as root. The ports infrastructure will download the software, change it so 422it works on FreeBSD, compile it, install it, register the installation so it 423will be possible to automatically uninstall it, and clean out the temporary 424working space it used. You can remove an installed port you decide you do not 425want after all by typing 426 427 # cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname> 428 # make deinstall 429 430as root. 431% 432You can look through a file in a nice text-based interface by typing 433 434 less filename 435% 436You can make a log of your terminal session with script(1). 437% 438You can often get answers to your questions about FreeBSD by searching in the 439FreeBSD mailing list archives at 440 441 http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html 442% 443You can open up a new split-screen window in (n)vi with :N or :E and then 444use ^w to switch between the two. 445% 446You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them 447in a startup file for the shell. The name of the startup file varies 448depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .login, bash, sh, ksh and zsh use 449.profile. When using bash, sh, ksh or zsh, don't forget to export the 450variable. 451% 452You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a 453login shell. 454 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 455% 456You can press up-arrow or down-arrow to walk through a list of 457previous commands in tcsh. 458% 459You can search for documentation on a keyword by typing 460 461 apropos keyword 462% 463You can `set autologout = 30' to have tcsh log you off automatically 464if you leave the shell idle for more than 30 minutes. 465% 466You can use aliases to decrease the amount of typing you need to do to get 467commands you commonly use. Examples of fairly popular aliases include (in 468Bourne shell style, as in /bin/sh, bash, ksh, and zsh): 469 470 alias lf="ls -FA" 471 alias ll="ls -lA" 472 alias su="su -m" 473 474In csh or tcsh, these would be 475 476 alias lf ls -FA 477 alias ll ls -lA 478 alias su su -m 479 480To remove an alias, you can usually use 'unalias aliasname'. To list all 481aliases, you can usually type just 'alias'. 482% 483You can use /etc/make.conf to control the options used to compile software 484on this system. Example entries are in 485/usr/share/examples/etc/make.conf. 486% 487You can use "pkg_info" to see a list of packages you have installed. 488 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 489% 490You can use the 'fetch' command to retrieve files over ftp or http. 491 492 fetch http://www.FreeBSD.org/index.html 493 494will download the front page of the FreeBSD web site. 495% 496You can use "whereis" to search standard binary, manual page and source 497directories for the specified programs. This can be particularly handy 498when you are trying to find where in the ports tree an application is. 499 500Try "whereis netscape" and "whereis whereis". 501 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 502% 503