xref: /freebsd-11.0-release/usr.bin/fortune/datfiles/freebsd-tips

This fortune brought to you by:
$FreeBSD: head/games/fortune/datfiles/freebsd-tips 78352 2001-06-16 11:42:28Z nik $
%
Having trouble using FTP through a firewall?  Try setting the environment
variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see ftp(1) for more details.
%
By pressing "Scroll Lock" you can use the arrow keys to scroll backward
through the console output.  Press "Scroll Lock" again to turn it off.
%
Want colour in your directory listings?  Use "ls -G".  "ls -F" is also useful,
and they can be combined as "ls -FG".
%
If you need to ask a question on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list then

	http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/\
		freebsd-questions/index.html

contains lots of useful advice to help you get the best results.
%
If you'd like to keep track of applications in the FreeBSD ports tree, take a
look at FreshPorts;

	http://www.freshports.org/
%
To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example

	find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls

will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name.
      	--  Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com>
%
In tcsh, you can `set autolist' to have the shell automatically show
all the possible matches when doing filename/directory expansion.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
You can `set autologout = 30' to have tcsh log you off automatically
if you leave the shell idle for more than 30 seconds.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
If you `set filec' (file completion) in tcsh and write a part of the
filename, pressing TAB will show you the available choices when there
is more than one, or complete the filename if there's only one match.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
You can press up-arrow or down-arrow to walk through a list of
previous commands in tcsh.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
If you `set watch (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when
someone logs in or out of your system.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%m %# '
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m%# '
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%~%# '
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%/%# '
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '[%B%m%b] %B%~%b%# '
%
Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# '
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in
kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your
environment to 'K'.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value"
where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value.
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
To change an environment variable in /bin/sh use:

	$ VARIABLE="value"
	$ export VARIABLE
		--  Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>
%
/etc/make.conf contains overrides to /etc/defaults/make.conf, which
controls the options used to compile software on this system.
%
To do a fast search for a file, try

	 locate filename

locate uses a database that is updated every saturday (assuming your computer
is running FreeBSD at the time) to quickly find files based on name only.
%
In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this:

	 grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...]

This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string.  grep can
also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details.
%
You can use the 'fetch' command to retrieve files over ftp or http.

	 fetch http://www.freebsd.org/index.html

will download the front page of the FreeBSD web site.
%
In order to make fetch (the FreeBSD downloading tool) ask for
username/password when it encounter a password-protected web page, you can set
the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'.
%
You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them
in a startup file for the shell.  The name of the startup file varies
depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .cshrc, bash uses .bashrc, zsh uses
.zshrc, ksh uses .kshrc, and the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) uses .profile (and
through a little bit of trickery in .profile also .shrc)
Other shells will often also read .profile
%
If you are running xterm, the default TERM variable will be 'xterm'.  If you
set this environment variable to 'xterm-color' instead, a lot of programs will
use colors.  You can do this by

	TERM=xterm-color; export TERM

in Bourne-derived shells, and

	setenv TERM xterm-color

in csh-derived shells.
%
If you accidently drop into /bin/sh (e.g, due to a computer failure where you
end up in single user mode), you can make the cursor keys work by typing

	set -E

The E represents the initial E in Emacs (for emacs keys).
%
If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with

	xset b off
%
You can look through a file in a nice text-based interface by typing

	less filename
%
The default editor in FreeBSD is vi, which is efficient to use when you have
learned it, but somewhat user-unfriendly.  To use ee (an easier but less
powerful editor) instead, set the environment variable EDITOR to /usr/bin/ee
%
If you accidently end up inside vi, you can quit it by pressing Escape, colon
(:), q (q), bang (!) and pressing return.
%
You can use aliases to decrease the amount of typing you need to do to get
commands you commonly use.  Examples of fairly popular aliases include (in
bourne shell style, as in /bin/sh, bash, ksh, and zsh):

	alias lf="ls -FA"
	alias ll="ls -lA"
	alias su="su -m"

In csh or tcsh, these would be

	alias lf ls -FA
	alias ll ls -lA
	alias su su -m

To remove an alias, you can usually use 'unalias aliasname'.  To list all
aliases, you can usually type just 'alias'.
%
In order to support national characters for european languages in tools like
less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment
variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.ISO8859-1'.
%
You can search for documentation on a keyword by typing

	apropos keyword
%
Man pages are divided into section depending on topic.  There are 9 different
sections numbered from 1 (General Commands) to 9 (Kernel Developer's Manual).
You can get an introduction to each topic by typing

	man <number> intro

In other words, to get the intro to general commands, type

	man 1 intro
%
FreeBSD is started up by the program 'init'.  The first thing init does when
starting multiuser mode (ie, starting the computer up for normal use) is to
run the shell script /etc/rc.  By reading /etc/rc, you can learn a lot about
how the system is put together, which again will make you more confident about
what happens when you do something with it.
%
If you want to play CDs with FreeBSD, a utility for this is already included.
Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more.  (You may need to set the CDROM
environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.)
%
If you have a CD-ROM drive in your machine, you can make the CD-ROM that is
presently inserted available by typing 'mount /cdrom' as root.   The CD-ROM
will be available under /cdrom/.  Remember to do 'unmount /cdrom' before
removing the CD-ROM (it will usually not be possible to remove the CD-ROM
without doing this.)

Note: This tip may not work in all configurations.
%
You can install extra packages for FreeBSD by using the ports system.
If you have installed it, you can download, compile, and install software by
just typing

	# cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>
	# make install && make clean

as root.   The ports infrastructure will download the software, change it so
it works on FreeBSD, compile it, install it, register the installation so it
will be possible to automatically uninstall it, and clean out the temporary
working space it used.  You can remove an installed port you decide you do not
want after all by typing

	# cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname>
	# make deinstall

as root.
%
Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ '
		-- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com>
%
To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8).  If it has
been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot.
		-- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com>
%
You can use "whereis" to locate standard binary, manual page and source
directories for the specified programs. This can be particularly handy
when you are trying to find where in the ports tree an application is.

Try "whereis netscape" and "whereis whereis".
		-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>
%
You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a
login shell.
		-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>
%
You can use "pkg_info" to see a list of packages you have installed.
		-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>
%
You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like
the following to /etc/rc.conf:

	allscreens="80x30"

You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text
modes.
		-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>
%
Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate
a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group.
		-- 	-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>
%
Over quota?  "du -s * | sort -n " will give you a sorted list of your
directory sizes.
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
Handy bash(1) prompt:   PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ "
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
man -k "something" will give you a list of manpages that have "something"
in their description.
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)?  It's
the section of the manual the man page is in.  "man man" will tell you more.
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
"man hier" will explain the way FreeBSD filesystems are normally laid out.
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
"man tuning" gives some tips how to tune performance of your FreeBSD system.
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
"man firewall" will give advice for building a FreeBSD firewall
		-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>
%
You can often get answers to your questions about FreeBSD by searching in the
FreeBSD mailing list archives at

	http://www.freebsd.org/search.html
%
You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your
computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'.  To get a list of what you can
adjust, just type 'mixer'.
%
You can automatically download and install binary packages by doing

	pkg_add -r <URL>

where you replace <URL> with the URL to the package.  This will also
automatically install the packages the package you download is dependent on
(ie, the packages it needs in order to work.)
%
You can get a good standard workstation install by using the
instant-workstation port/package.  If you have ports installed, you can
install it by doing

	# cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation
	# make install && make clean

as root.  This will install a collection of packages that is convenient to
have on a workstation.
%
You can get a good generic server install by using the
instant-server port/package.  If you have ports installed, you can
install it by doing

	# cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-server
	# make install && make clean

as root.  This will install a collection of packages that is appropriate for
running a "generic" server.
% 
You can make a log of you terminal session with script(1). 
% 
"man ports" gives many useful hints about installing FreeBSD ports. 
% 
ports/net/netcat port is useful not only for redirecting input/output 
to TCP or UDP connections, but also for proxying them. See inetd(8) for 
details. 
% 
If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can 
reinstall it either with /stand/sysinstall or with boot0cfg(8). See 
"man boot0cfg" for details.