freebsd-tips revision 78774
1This fortune brought to you by: 2$FreeBSD: head/games/fortune/datfiles/freebsd-tips 78774 2001-06-25 20:45:52Z brian $ 3% 4Having trouble using FTP through a firewall? Try setting the environment 5variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see ftp(1) for more details. 6% 7By pressing "Scroll Lock" you can use the arrow keys to scroll backward 8through the console output. Press "Scroll Lock" again to turn it off. 9% 10Want colour in your directory listings? Use "ls -G". "ls -F" is also useful, 11and they can be combined as "ls -FG". 12% 13If you need to ask a question on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list then 14 15 http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/\ 16 freebsd-questions/index.html 17 18contains lots of useful advice to help you get the best results. 19% 20If you'd like to keep track of applications in the FreeBSD ports tree, take a 21look at FreshPorts; 22 23 http://www.freshports.org/ 24% 25To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example 26 27 find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls 28 29will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name. 30 -- Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com> 31% 32In tcsh, you can `set autolist' to have the shell automatically show 33all the possible matches when doing filename/directory expansion. 34 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 35% 36You can `set autologout = 30' to have tcsh log you off automatically 37if you leave the shell idle for more than 30 seconds. 38 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 39% 40If you `set filec' (file completion) in tcsh and write a part of the 41filename, pressing TAB will show you the available choices when there 42is more than one, or complete the filename if there's only one match. 43 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 44% 45You can press up-arrow or down-arrow to walk through a list of 46previous commands in tcsh. 47 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 48% 49You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'. 50 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 51% 52If you `set watch (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when 53someone logs in or out of your system. 54 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 55% 56Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%m %# ' 57 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 58% 59Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m%# ' 60 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 61% 62Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%~%# ' 63 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 64% 65Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%/%# ' 66 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 67% 68Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '[%B%m%b] %B%~%b%# ' 69% 70Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# ' 71 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 72% 73If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in 74kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your 75environment to 'K'. 76 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 77% 78To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value" 79where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value. 80 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 81% 82To change an environment variable in /bin/sh use: 83 84 $ VARIABLE="value" 85 $ export VARIABLE 86 -- Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> 87% 88/etc/make.conf contains overrides to /etc/defaults/make.conf, which 89controls the options used to compile software on this system. 90% 91To do a fast search for a file, try 92 93 locate filename 94 95locate uses a database that is updated every saturday (assuming your computer 96is running FreeBSD at the time) to quickly find files based on name only. 97% 98In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this: 99 100 grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...] 101 102This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string. grep can 103also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details. 104% 105You can use the 'fetch' command to retrieve files over ftp or http. 106 107 fetch http://www.freebsd.org/index.html 108 109will download the front page of the FreeBSD web site. 110% 111In order to make fetch (the FreeBSD downloading tool) ask for 112username/password when it encounter a password-protected web page, you can set 113the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'. 114% 115You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them 116in a startup file for the shell. The name of the startup file varies 117depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .login, bash, sh, ksh and zsh use 118.profile. When using bash, sh, ksh or zsh, don't forget to export the 119variable. 120% 121If you are running xterm, the default TERM variable will be 'xterm'. If you 122set this environment variable to 'xterm-color' instead, a lot of programs will 123use colors. You can do this by 124 125 TERM=xterm-color; export TERM 126 127in Bourne-derived shells, and 128 129 setenv TERM xterm-color 130 131in csh-derived shells. 132% 133If you accidently drop into /bin/sh (e.g, due to a computer failure where you 134end up in single user mode), you can make the cursor keys work by typing 135 136 set -E 137 138The E represents the initial E in Emacs (for emacs keys). 139% 140If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with 141 142 xset b off 143% 144You can look through a file in a nice text-based interface by typing 145 146 less filename 147% 148The default editor in FreeBSD is vi, which is efficient to use when you have 149learned it, but somewhat user-unfriendly. To use ee (an easier but less 150powerful editor) instead, set the environment variable EDITOR to /usr/bin/ee 151% 152If you accidently end up inside vi, you can quit it by pressing Escape, colon 153(:), q (q), bang (!) and pressing return. 154% 155You can use aliases to decrease the amount of typing you need to do to get 156commands you commonly use. Examples of fairly popular aliases include (in 157bourne shell style, as in /bin/sh, bash, ksh, and zsh): 158 159 alias lf="ls -FA" 160 alias ll="ls -lA" 161 alias su="su -m" 162 163In csh or tcsh, these would be 164 165 alias lf ls -FA 166 alias ll ls -lA 167 alias su su -m 168 169To remove an alias, you can usually use 'unalias aliasname'. To list all 170aliases, you can usually type just 'alias'. 171% 172In order to support national characters for european languages in tools like 173less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment 174variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.ISO8859-1'. 175% 176You can search for documentation on a keyword by typing 177 178 apropos keyword 179% 180Man pages are divided into section depending on topic. There are 9 different 181sections numbered from 1 (General Commands) to 9 (Kernel Developer's Manual). 182You can get an introduction to each topic by typing 183 184 man <number> intro 185 186In other words, to get the intro to general commands, type 187 188 man 1 intro 189% 190FreeBSD is started up by the program 'init'. The first thing init does when 191starting multiuser mode (ie, starting the computer up for normal use) is to 192run the shell script /etc/rc. By reading /etc/rc, you can learn a lot about 193how the system is put together, which again will make you more confident about 194what happens when you do something with it. 195% 196If you want to play CDs with FreeBSD, a utility for this is already included. 197Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more. (You may need to set the CDROM 198environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.) 199% 200If you have a CD-ROM drive in your machine, you can make the CD-ROM that is 201presently inserted available by typing 'mount /cdrom' as root. The CD-ROM 202will be available under /cdrom/. Remember to do 'umount /cdrom' before 203removing the CD-ROM (it will usually not be possible to remove the CD-ROM 204without doing this.) 205 206Note: This tip may not work in all configurations. 207% 208You can install extra packages for FreeBSD by using the ports system. 209If you have installed it, you can download, compile, and install software by 210just typing 211 212 # cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname> 213 # make install && make clean 214 215as root. The ports infrastructure will download the software, change it so 216it works on FreeBSD, compile it, install it, register the installation so it 217will be possible to automatically uninstall it, and clean out the temporary 218working space it used. You can remove an installed port you decide you do not 219want after all by typing 220 221 # cd /usr/ports/<category>/<portname> 222 # make deinstall 223 224as root. 225% 226Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ ' 227 -- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com> 228% 229To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8). If it has 230been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot. 231 -- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com> 232% 233You can use "whereis" to locate standard binary, manual page and source 234directories for the specified programs. This can be particularly handy 235when you are trying to find where in the ports tree an application is. 236 237Try "whereis netscape" and "whereis whereis". 238 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 239% 240You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a 241login shell. 242 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 243% 244You can use "pkg_info" to see a list of packages you have installed. 245 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 246% 247You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like 248the following to /etc/rc.conf: 249 250 allscreens="80x30" 251 252You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text 253modes. 254 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 255% 256Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate 257a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group. 258 -- -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 259% 260Over quota? "du -s * | sort -n " will give you a sorted list of your 261directory sizes. 262 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 263% 264Handy bash(1) prompt: PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ " 265 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 266% 267man -k "something" will give you a list of manpages that have "something" 268in their description. 269 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 270% 271Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's 272the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more. 273 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 274% 275"man hier" will explain the way FreeBSD filesystems are normally laid out. 276 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 277% 278"man tuning" gives some tips how to tune performance of your FreeBSD system. 279 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 280% 281"man firewall" will give advice for building a FreeBSD firewall 282 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 283% 284You can often get answers to your questions about FreeBSD by searching in the 285FreeBSD mailing list archives at 286 287 http://www.freebsd.org/search.html 288% 289You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your 290computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'. To get a list of what you can 291adjust, just type 'mixer'. 292% 293You can automatically download and install binary packages by doing 294 295 pkg_add -r <URL> 296 297where you replace <URL> with the URL to the package. This will also 298automatically install the packages the package you download is dependent on 299(ie, the packages it needs in order to work.) 300% 301You can get a good standard workstation install by using the 302instant-workstation port/package. If you have ports installed, you can 303install it by doing 304 305 # cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-workstation 306 # make install && make clean 307 308as root. This will install a collection of packages that is convenient to 309have on a workstation. 310% 311You can get a good generic server install by using the 312instant-server port/package. If you have ports installed, you can 313install it by doing 314 315 # cd /usr/ports/misc/instant-server 316 # make install && make clean 317 318as root. This will install a collection of packages that is appropriate for 319running a "generic" server. 320% 321You can make a log of you terminal session with script(1). 322% 323"man ports" gives many useful hints about installing FreeBSD ports. 324% 325ports/net/netcat port is useful not only for redirecting input/output 326to TCP or UDP connections, but also for proxying them. See inetd(8) for 327details. 328% 329If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can 330reinstall it either with /stand/sysinstall or with boot0cfg(8). See 331"man boot0cfg" for details. 332% 333Need to see the calendar for this month? Simply type "cal". To see the 334whole year, type "cal 2001". 335 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 336% 337Need to quickly return to your home directory? Type "cd". 338 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 339% 340To see the last time that you logged in, use lastlogin(8). 341 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 342% 343To clear the screen, use "clear". To re-display your screen buffer, press 344the scroll lock key and use your page up button. When you're finished, 345press the scroll lock key again to get your prompt back. 346 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 347% 348To save disk space in your home directory, can compress files you 349rarely use with "gzip filename". 350 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 351% 352To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use 353"zcat" or "zmore" to view it. 354 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 355% 356To see how much disk space is left on your partitions, use 357 358 df -h 359 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 360% 361To see the 10 largest files on a directory or partition, use 362 363 du /partition_or_directory_name | sort -rn | head 364 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 365% 366To determine whether a file is a text file, executable, or some other type 367of file, use 368 369 file filename 370 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 371% 372Time to change your password? Type "passwd" and follow the prompts. 373 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 374% 375Want to know how many words, lines, or bytes are contained in a file? Type 376"wc filename". 377 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 378% 379Need to print a manpage? Use 380 381 man name_of_manpage | col -bx | lpr 382 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 383% 384Need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try 385 386 col -bx < dosfile > newfile 387 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 388% 389Forget what directory you are in? Type "pwd". 390 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 391% 392If you are in the C shell and have just installed a new program, you won't 393be able to run it unless you first type "rehash". 394 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 395% 396Need to leave your terminal for a few minutes and don't want to logout? 397Use "lock -p". When you return, use your password as the key to unlock the 398terminal. 399 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 400% 401Need to find the location of a program? Use "locate program_name". 402 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 403% 404Forget how to spell a word or a variation of a word? Use 405 406 look portion_of_word_you_know 407 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 408% 409To see the last 10 lines of a long file, use "tail filename". To see the 410first 10 lines, use "head filename". 411 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 412% 413To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the 414command name. 415 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 416% 417To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename". 418 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 419% 420To find out the hostname associated with an IP address, use 421 422 dig -x IP_address 423 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 424% 425If you use the C shell, add the following line to the .cshrc file in your 426home directory to prevent core files from being written to disk: 427 428 limit coredumpsize 0 429 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 430% 431If you need a reminder to leave your terminal, type "leave hhmm" where 432"hhmm" represents in how many hours and minutes you need to leave. 433 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 434% 435Need to do a search in a manpage or in a file you've sent to a pager? Use 436"/search_word". To repeat the same search, type "n" for next. 437 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 438% 439Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox 440Easter, use "ncal -o" instead. 441 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 442% 443Need to see your routing table? Type "netstat -rn". The entry with the G 444flag is your gateway. 445 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 446% 447Need to see which daemons are listening for connection requests? Use 448"sockstat -4l" for IPv4, and "sockstat -l" for IPv4 and IPv6. 449 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 450% 451Can't remember is you've installed a certain port or not? Try "pkg_info | 452grep port_name". 453 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 454% 455Got some time to kill? Try typing "hangman". 456 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 457% 458To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl u". 459 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 460% 461To repeat the last command in the C shell, type "!!". 462 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 463% 464Need to quickly empty a file? Use "echo > filename". 465 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 466% 467To see all of the directories on your FreeBSD system, type 468 469 ls -R / | more 470 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 471% 472To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type 473"ifconfig -u". 474 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 475% 476To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type 477 478 ifconfig -a 479 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 480% 481You can save your kernel startup configuration with kget(8). The 482Configuration can be edited at boot time with 'boot -c' command in loader. 483See boot(8), loader(8) for details. 484% 485You can open up a new split-screen window in (n)vi with :N or :E and then 486use ^w to switch between the two. 487% 488sh (the default bourne shell in FreeBSD) supports command-line editing. Just 489``set -o emacs'' or ``set -o vi'' to enable it. 490