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Welcome to FreeBSD! This handbook covers the installation and day to day use of FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE and 13.2-RELEASE.This book is the result of ongoing work by many individuals.Some sections might be outdated.Those interested in helping to update and expand this document should send email to the FreeBSD documentation project mailing list.
The latest version of this book is available from the FreeBSD web site.Previous versions can be obtained from book can be downloaded in a variety of formats and compression options from the FreeBSD download server or one of the numerous mirror sites.Searches can be performed on the handbook and other documents on the search page.
The FreeBSD newcomer will find that the first section of this book guides the user through the FreeBSD installation process and gently introduces the concepts and conventions that underpin UNIX.Working through this section requires little more than the desire to explore, and the ability to take on board new concepts as they are introduced.
Once you have traveled this far, the second, far larger, section of the Handbook is a comprehensive reference to all manner of topics of interest to FreeBSD system administrators.Some of these chapters may recommend that you do some prior reading, and this is noted in the synopsis at the beginning of each chapter.
The current version of the Handbook represents the cumulative effort of a working group that has been reviewing and updating all Handbook content.These are the major updates since the fourth edition of the Handbook.
The current online version of the Handbook represents the cumulative effort of many hundreds of contributors over the past 10 years.The following are some of the significant changes since the two volume third edition was published in 2004:
The third edition was the culmination of over two years of work by the dedicated members of the FreeBSD Documentation Project.The printed edition grew to such a size that it was necessary to publish as two separate volumes.The following are the major changes in this new edition:
Network Servers is all new with this edition. This chapter includes information about setting up the Apache HTTP Server, ftpd, and setting up a server for Microsoft Windows clients with Samba. Some sections from Advanced Networking were moved here to improve the presentation.
Storage has been written from what used to be two separate chapters on "Disks" and "Backups". We feel that the topics are easier to comprehend when presented as a single chapter. A section on RAID (both hardware and software) has also been added.
This book is split into five logically distinct sections.The first section, Getting Started, covers the installation and basic usage of FreeBSD.It is expected that the reader will follow these chapters in sequence, possibly skipping chapters covering familiar topics.The second section, Common Tasks, covers some frequently used features of FreeBSD.This section, and all subsequent sections, can be read out of order.Each chapter begins with a succinct synopsis that describes what the chapter covers and what the reader is expected to already know.This is meant to allow the casual reader to skip around to find chapters of interest.The third section, System Administration, covers administration topics.The fourth section, Network Communication, covers networking and server topics.The fifth section contains appendices of reference information.
Describes WINE and provides detailed installation instructions. Also describes how WINE operates, how to install a GUI helper, how to run Windows applications on FreeBSD, and offers other tips and solutions.
Explains the differences between FreeBSD-STABLE, FreeBSD-CURRENT, and FreeBSD releases. Describes which users would benefit from tracking a development system and outlines that process. Covers the methods users may take to update their system to the latest security release.
Provides detailed instructions and example configuration files to set up your FreeBSD machine as a network filesystem server, domain name server, network information system server, or time synchronization server.
Examples starting with # indicate a command that must be invoked as the superuser in FreeBSD.You can login as root to type the command, or login as your normal account and use su(1) to gain superuser privileges.
Examples starting with % indicate a command that should be invoked from a normal user account.Unless otherwise noted, C-shell syntax is used for setting environment variables and other shell commands.
The book you are holding represents the efforts of many hundreds of people around the world.Whether they sent in fixes for typos, or submitted complete chapters, all the contributions have been useful.
Several companies have supported the development of this document by paying authors to work on it full-time, paying for publication, etc.In particular, BSDi (subsequently acquired by Wind River Systems) paid members of the FreeBSD Documentation Project to work on improving this book full time leading up to the publication of the first printed edition in March 2000 (ISBN 1-57176-241-8).Wind River Systems then paid several additional authors to make a number of improvements to the print-output infrastructure and to add additional chapters to the text.This work culminated in the publication of the second printed edition in November 2001 (ISBN 1-57176-303-1).In 2003-2004, FreeBSD Mall, Inc, paid several contributors to improve the Handbook in preparation for the third printed edition.The third printed edition has been split into two volumes.Both volumes have been published as The FreeBSD Handbook 3rd Edition Volume 1: User Guide (ISBN 1-57176-327-9) and The FreeBSD Handbook 3rd Edition Volume 2: Administrators Guide (ISBN 1-57176-328-7).
FreeBSD is an Open Source, standards-compliant Unix-like operating system for x86 (both 32 and 64 bit), ARM, AArch64, RISC-V, POWER, and PowerPC computers.It provides all the features that are nowadays taken for granted, such as preemptive multitasking, memory protection, virtual memory, multi-user facilities, SMP support, all the Open Source development tools for different languages and frameworks, and desktop features centered around X Window System, KDE, or GNOME.Its particular strengths are:
Liberal Open Source license, which grants you rights to freely modify and extend its source code and incorporate it in both Open Source projects and closed products without imposing restrictions typical to copyleft licenses, as well as avoiding potential license incompatibility problems.
Strong TCP/IP networking - FreeBSD implements industry standard protocols with ever increasing performance and scalability. This makes it a good match in both server, and routing/firewalling roles - and indeed many companies and vendors use it precisely for that purpose.
Fully integrated OpenZFS support, including root-on-ZFS, ZFS Boot Environments, fault management, administrative delegation, support for jails, FreeBSD specific documentation, and system installer support.
Documentation - in addition to the Handbook and books from different authors that cover topics ranging from system administration to kernel internals, there are also the man(1) pages, not only for userspace daemons, utilities, and configuration files, but also for kernel driver APIs (section 9) and individual drivers (section 4).
Simple and consistent repository structure and build system - FreeBSD uses a single repository for all of its components, both kernel and userspace. This, along with a unified and easy to customize build system and a well thought-out development process makes it easy to integrate FreeBSD with build infrastructure for your own product.
FreeBSD is based on the 4.4BSD-Lite release from Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California at Berkeley, and carries on the distinguished tradition of BSD systems development.In addition to the fine work provided by CSRG, the FreeBSD Project has put in many thousands of man-hours into extending the functionality and fine-tuning the system for maximum performance and reliability in real-life load situations.FreeBSD offers performance and reliability on par with other Open Source and commercial offerings, combined with cutting-edge features not available anywhere else.
The applications to which FreeBSD can be put are truly limited only by your own imagination.From software development to factory automation, inventory control to azimuth correction of remote satellite antenna; if it can be done with a commercial UNIX product then it is more than likely that you can do it with FreeBSD too! FreeBSD also benefits significantly from literally thousands of high quality applications developed by research centers and universities around the world, often available at little to no cost.
Because the source code for FreeBSD itself is freely available, the system can also be customized to an almost unheard-of degree for special applications or projects, and in ways not generally possible with operating systems from most major commercial vendors.Here is just a sampling of some of the applications in which people are currently using FreeBSD:
Education: Are you a student of computer science or a related engineering field? There is no better way of learning about operating systems, computer architecture and networking than the hands-on, under-the-hood experience that FreeBSD can provide. A number of freely available CAD, mathematical and graphic design packages also make it highly useful to those whose primary interest in a computer is to get other work done!
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