The Best of FreeBSD Basics


Book Description

For over seven years, computer networking and security instructor and consultant, Dru Lavigne, meticulously documented her learning experiences with FreeBSD administration and open source software usage in a series of over 110 articles. Many readers praised and recommended the author's informative tutorials. The Best of FreeBSD Basics book contains most of these articles - many updated from FreeBSD 4 and 5 to reflect the usage on FreeBSD 6 and 7. The Best of FreeBSD Basics provides practical advice for completing common tasks on FreeBSD and is a great way to get to know FreeBSD - and Unix in general. Darwin, DragonFly, Linux, Mac OS X, NetBSD, and OpenBSD fans will also find a lot of the book invaluable and useful. Covering a huge range of FreeBSD and open source topics, The Best of FreeBSD Basics includes step-by-step directions, things to watch out for, and hints for success. A sampling of the book's topics include installing an X11 server and setting up an desktop environment, comparing common tasks with Linux, playing audio and video files, user administration, system startup, finding and using documentation, managing backups, networking basics, IPsec, setting up several servers, filtering spam, improving security, enabling firewalls, and a lot more.




Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition


Book Description

FreeBSD—the powerful, flexible, and free Unix-like operating system—is the preferred server for many enterprises. But it can be even trickier to use than either Unix or Linux, and harder still to master. Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition is your complete guide to FreeBSD, written by FreeBSD committer Michael W. Lucas. Lucas considers this completely revised and rewritten second edition of his landmark work to be his best work ever; a true product of his love for FreeBSD and the support of the FreeBSD community. Absolute FreeBSD, 2nd Edition covers installation, networking, security, network services, system performance, kernel tweaking, filesystems, SMP, upgrading, crash debugging, and much more, including coverage of how to:–Use advanced security features like packet filtering, virtual machines, and host-based intrusion detection –Build custom live FreeBSD CDs and bootable flash –Manage network services and filesystems –Use DNS and set up email, IMAP, web, and FTP services for both servers and clients –Monitor your system with performance-testing and troubleshooting tools –Run diskless systems –Manage schedulers, remap shared libraries, and optimize your system for your hardware and your workload –Build custom network appliances with embedded FreeBSD –Implement redundant disks, even without special hardware –Integrate FreeBSD-specific SNMP into your network management system. Whether you're just getting started with FreeBSD or you've been using it for years, you'll find this book to be the definitive guide to FreeBSD that you've been waiting for.




The FreeBSD Handbook


Book Description

"The FreeBSD Handbook" is a comprehensive FreeBSD tutorial and reference. It covers installation, day-to-day use of FreeBSD, Ports collection, creating a custom kernel, security topics, the X Window System, how to use FreeBSD's Linux binary compatibility, and how to upgrade your system from source using the "make world" command.




Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security


Book Description

FreeBSD and OpenBSD are increasingly gaining traction in educational institutions, non-profits, and corporations worldwide because they provide significant security advantages over Linux. Although a lot can be said for the robustness, clean organization, and stability of the BSD operating systems, security is one of the main reasons system administrators use these two platforms.There are plenty of books to help you get a FreeBSD or OpenBSD system off the ground, and all of them touch on security to some extent, usually dedicating a chapter to the subject. But, as security is commonly named as the key concern for today's system administrators, a single chapter on the subject can't provide the depth of information you need to keep your systems secure.FreeBSD and OpenBSD are rife with security "building blocks" that you can put to use, and Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security shows you how. Both operating systems have kernel options and filesystem features that go well beyond traditional Unix permissions and controls. This power and flexibility is valuable, but the colossal range of possibilities need to be tackled one step at a time. This book walks you through the installation of a hardened operating system, the installation and configuration of critical services, and ongoing maintenance of your FreeBSD and OpenBSD systems.Using an application-specific approach that builds on your existing knowledge, the book provides sound technical information on FreeBSD and Open-BSD security with plenty of real-world examples to help you configure and deploy a secure system. By imparting a solid technical foundation as well as practical know-how, it enables administrators to push their server's security to the next level. Even administrators in other environments--like Linux and Solaris--can find useful paradigms to emulate.Written by security professionals with two decades of operating system experience, Mastering FreeBSD and OpenBSD Security features broad and deep explanations of how how to secure your most critical systems. Where other books on BSD systems help you achieve functionality, this book will help you more thoroughly secure your deployments.




FreeBSD Device Drivers


Book Description

Device drivers make it possible for your software to communicate with your hardware, and because every operating system has specific requirements, driver writing is nontrivial. When developing for FreeBSD, you've probably had to scour the Internet and dig through the kernel sources to figure out how to write the drivers you need. Thankfully, that stops now. In FreeBSD Device Drivers, Joseph Kong will teach you how to master everything from the basics of building and running loadable kernel modules to more complicated topics like thread synchronization. After a crash course in the different FreeBSD driver frameworks, extensive tutorial sections dissect real-world drivers like the parallel port printer driver. You'll learn: –All about Newbus, the infrastructure used by FreeBSD to manage the hardware devices on your system –How to work with ISA, PCI, USB, and other buses –The best ways to control and communicate with the hardware devices from user space –How to use Direct Memory Access (DMA) for maximum system performance –The inner workings of the virtual null modem terminal driver, the USB printer driver, the Intel PCI Gigabit Ethernet adapter driver, and other important drivers –How to use Common Access Method (CAM) to manage host bus adapters (HBAs) Concise descriptions and extensive annotations walk you through the many code examples. Don't waste time searching man pages or digging through the kernel sources to figure out how to make that arcane bit of hardware work with your system. FreeBSD Device Drivers gives you the framework that you need to write any driver you want, now.




The Complete FreeBSD


Book Description

This practical guidebook explains not only how to get a computer up and running with the FreeBSD operating system, but how to turn it into a highly functional and secure server that can host large numbers of users and disks, support remote access and provide key parts of the Inter




BSD Hacks


Book Description

In the world of Unix operating systems, the various BSDs come with a long heritage of high-quality software and well-designed solutions, making them a favorite OS of a wide range of users. Among budget-minded users who adopted BSD early on to developers of some of today's largest Internet sites, the popularity of BSD systems continues to grow. If you use the BSD operating system, then you know that the secret of its success is not just in its price tag: practical, reliable, extraordinarily stable and flexible, BSD also offers plenty of fertile ground for creative, time-saving tweaks and tricks, and yes, even the chance to have some fun. "Fun?" you ask. Perhaps "fun" wasn't covered in the manual that taught you to install BSD and administer it effectively. But BSD Hacks, the latest in O'Reilly's popular Hacks series, offers a unique set of practical tips, tricks, tools--and even fun--for administrators and power users of BSD systems. BSD Hacks takes a creative approach to saving time and getting more done, with fewer resources. You'll take advantage of the tools and concepts that make the world's top Unix users more productive. Rather than spending hours with a dry technical document learning what switches go with a command, you'll learn concrete, practical uses for that command. The book begins with hacks to customize the user environment. You'll learn how to be more productive in the command line, timesaving tips for setting user-defaults, how to automate long commands, and save long sessions for later review. Other hacks in the book are grouped in the following areas: Customizing the User Environment Dealing with Files and Filesystems The Boot and Login Environments Backing Up Networking Hacks Securing the System Going Beyond the Basics Keeping Up-to-Date Grokking BSD If you want more than your average BSD user--you want to explore and experiment, unearth shortcuts, create useful tools, and come up with fun things to try on your own--BSD Hacks is a must-have. This book will turn regular users into power users and system administrators into super system administrators.




BSD UNIX Toolbox


Book Description

Learn how to use BSD UNIX systems from the command line with BSD UNIX Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for FreeBSD, OpenBSD and NetBSD. Learn to use BSD operation systems the way the experts do, by trying more than 1,000 commands to find and obtain software, monitor system health and security, and access network resources. Apply your newly developed skills to use and administer servers and desktops running FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or any other BSD variety. Become more proficient at creating file systems, troubleshooting networks, and locking down security.




FreeBSD Handbook


Book Description




Unix Shell Programming


Book Description

Unix Shell Programming is a tutorial aimed at helping Unix and Linux users get optimal performance out of their operating out of their operating system. It shows them how to take control of their systems and work efficiently by harnessing the power of the shell to solve common problems. The reader learns everything he or she needs to know to customize the way a Unix system responds. The vast majority of Unix users utilize the Korn shell or some variant of the Bourne shell, such as bash. Three are covered in the third edition of Unix Shell Programming. It begins with a generalized tutorial of Unix and tools and then moves into detailed coverage of shell programming. Topics covered include: regular expressions, the kernel and the utilities, command files, parameters, manipulating text filters, understanding and debugging shell scripts, creating and utilizing variables, tools, processes, and customizing the shell.