1This fortune brought to you by: 2$FreeBSD: src/games/fortune/datfiles/freebsd-tips,v 1.14.2.11 2003/03/15 08:48:29 dougb Exp $ 3$DragonFly: src/games/fortune/datfiles/dragonfly-tips,v 1.2 2006/07/02 13:04:35 swildner Exp $ 4% 5Having trouble using fetch through a firewall? Try setting the environment 6variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see fetch(3) for more details. 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% 11Want colour in your directory listings? Use "ls -G". "ls -F" is also useful, 12and they can be combined as "ls -FG". 13% 14If you'd like to keep track of applications in the pkgsrc tree, take a look 15at pkgsrc.se; 16 17 http://www.pkgsrc.se/ 18% 19To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example 20 21 find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls 22 23will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name. 24 -- Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com> 25% 26In tcsh, you can `set autolist' to have the shell automatically show 27all the possible matches when doing filename/directory expansion. 28% 29You can `set autologout = 30' to have tcsh log you off automatically 30if you leave the shell idle for more than 30 minutes. 31% 32If you `set filec' (file completion) in tcsh and write a part of the 33filename, pressing TAB will show you the available choices when there 34is more than one, or complete the filename if there's only one match. 35% 36You can press up-arrow or down-arrow to walk through a list of 37previous commands in tcsh. 38% 39You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'. 40% 41If you `set watch = (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when 42someone logs in or out of your system. 43% 44Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%m %# ' 45% 46Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m%# ' 47% 48Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%~%# ' 49% 50Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%/%# ' 51% 52Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '[%B%m%b] %B%~%b%# ' 53% 54Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# ' 55% 56If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in 57kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your 58environment to 'K'. You can also use 'M' for Megabytes or 'G' for 59Gigabytes. If you want df(1) to automatically select the best size 60then use 'df -h'. 61% 62To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value" 63where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value. 64% 65To change an environment variable in /bin/sh use: 66 67 $ VARIABLE="value" 68 $ export VARIABLE 69% 70You can use /etc/make.conf to control the options used to compile software 71on this system. Example entries are in 72/etc/defaults/make.conf. 73% 74To do a fast search for a file, try 75 76 locate filename 77 78locate uses a database that is updated every Saturday (assuming your computer 79is running DragonFly BSD at the time) to quickly find files based on name only. 80% 81In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this: 82 83 grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...] 84 85This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string. grep can 86also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details. 87% 88You can use the 'fetch' command to retrieve files over ftp or http. 89 90 fetch http://www.dragonflybsd.org/ 91 92will download the front page of the DragonFly BSD web site. 93% 94In order to make fetch (the DragonFly BSD downloading tool) ask for 95username/password when it encounter a password-protected web page, you can set 96the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'. 97% 98You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them 99in a startup file for the shell. The name of the startup file varies 100depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .login, bash, sh, ksh and zsh use 101.profile. When using bash, sh, ksh or zsh, don't forget to export the 102variable. 103% 104If you are running xterm, the default TERM variable will be 'xterm'. If you 105set this environment variable to 'xterm-color' instead, a lot of programs will 106use colors. You can do this by 107 108 TERM=xterm-color; export TERM 109 110in Bourne-derived shells, and 111 112 setenv TERM xterm-color 113 114in csh-derived shells. 115% 116If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with 117 118 xset b off 119% 120You can look through a file in a nice text-based interface by typing 121 122 less filename 123% 124The default editor in DragonFly BSD is vi, which is efficient to use when you 125have learned it, but somewhat user-unfriendly. To use ee (an easier but less 126powerful editor) instead, set the environment variable EDITOR to /usr/bin/ee 127% 128If you accidently end up inside vi, you can quit it by pressing Escape, colon 129(:), q (q), bang (!) and pressing return. 130% 131You can use aliases to decrease the amount of typing you need to do to get 132commands you commonly use. Examples of fairly popular aliases include (in 133bourne shell style, as in /bin/sh, bash, ksh, and zsh): 134 135 alias lf="ls -FA" 136 alias ll="ls -lA" 137 alias su="su -m" 138 139In csh or tcsh, these would be 140 141 alias lf ls -FA 142 alias ll ls -lA 143 alias su su -m 144 145To remove an alias, you can usually use 'unalias aliasname'. To list all 146aliases, you can usually type just 'alias'. 147% 148In order to support national characters for european languages in tools like 149less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment 150variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.ISO8859-1'. 151% 152You can search for documentation on a keyword by typing 153 154 apropos keyword 155% 156Man pages are divided into section depending on topic. There are 9 different 157sections numbered from 1 (General Commands) to 9 (Kernel Developer's Manual). 158You can get an introduction to each topic by typing 159 160 man <number> intro 161 162In other words, to get the intro to general commands, type 163 164 man 1 intro 165% 166DragonFly BSD is started up by the program 'init'. The first thing init does 167when starting multiuser mode (ie, starting the computer up for normal use) is 168to run the shell script /etc/rc. By reading /etc/rc, you can learn a lot about 169how the system is put together, which again will make you more confident about 170what happens when you do something with it. 171% 172If you want to play CDs with DragonFly BSD, a utility for this is already 173included. Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more. (You may need to set 174the CDROM environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.) 175% 176If you have a CD-ROM drive in your machine, you can make the CD-ROM that is 177presently inserted available by typing 'mount /cdrom' as root. The CD-ROM 178will be available under /cdrom/. Remember to do 'umount /cdrom' before 179removing the CD-ROM (it will usually not be possible to remove the CD-ROM 180without doing this.) 181 182Note: This tip may not work in all configurations. 183% 184You can install extra packages for DragonFly BSD by using the pkgsrc system. 185If you have installed it, you can download, compile, and install software by 186just typing 187 188 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/<category>/<package name> 189 # bmake install clean 190 191as root. The pkgsrc infrastructure will download the software, change it so 192it works on DragonFly BSD, compile it, install it, register the installation 193so it will be possible to automatically uninstall it, and clean out the 194temporary working space it used. You can remove an installed package you 195decide you do not want after all by typing 196 197 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/<category>/<package name> 198 # bmake deinstall 199 200as root. 201% 202Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ ' 203 -- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com> 204% 205To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8). If it has 206been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot. 207 -- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com> 208% 209You can use "whereis" to locate standard binary, manual page and source 210directories for the specified programs. This can be particularly handy 211when you are trying to find where in the pkgsrc tree an application is. 212 213Try "whereis netscape" and "whereis whereis". 214 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 215% 216You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a 217login shell. 218 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 219% 220You can use "pkg_info" to see a list of packages you have installed. 221 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 222% 223You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like 224the following to /etc/rc.conf: 225 226 allscreens="80x30" 227 228You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text 229modes. 230 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 231% 232Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate 233a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group. 234 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 235% 236Over quota? "du -s * | sort -n " will give you a sorted list of your 237directory sizes. 238 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 239% 240Handy bash(1) prompt: PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ " 241 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 242% 243Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's 244the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more. 245 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 246% 247"man hier" explains the layout of DragonFly BSD filesystems. 248% 249"man tuning" has tips on how to improve DragonFly BSD performance. 250% 251"man firewall" has basic instructions for creating a DragonFly BSD firewall. 252% 253You can often get answers to your questions about DragonFly BSD by searching 254in the DragonFly BSD mailing list archives at 255 256 http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/mailarchive/ 257% 258You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your 259computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'. To get a list of what you can 260adjust, just type 'mixer'. 261% 262You can automatically download and install binary packages by doing 263 264 pkg_add <URL> 265 266where you replace <URL> with the URL to the package. This will also 267automatically install the packages the package you download is dependent on 268(ie, the packages it needs in order to work.) 269% 270You can make a log of your terminal session with script(1). 271% 272"man security" gives very good advice on how to tune the security of your 273DragonFly BSD system. 274% 275Want to see how much virtual memory you're using? Just type "swapinfo" to 276be shown information about the usage of your swap partitions. 277% 278pkgsrc/net/netcat package is useful not only for redirecting input/output 279to TCP or UDP connections, but also for proxying them. See inetd(8) for 280details. 281% 282If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can 283reinstall it either with /stand/sysinstall or with boot0cfg(8). See 284"man boot0cfg" for details. 285% 286Need to see the calendar for this month? Simply type "cal". To see the 287whole year, type "cal -y". 288 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 289% 290Need to quickly return to your home directory? Type "cd". 291 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 292% 293To see the last time that you logged in, use lastlogin(8). 294 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 295% 296To clear the screen, use "clear". To re-display your screen buffer, press 297the scroll lock key and use your page up button. When you're finished, 298press the scroll lock key again to get your prompt back. 299 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 300% 301To save disk space in your home directory, compress files you rarely 302use with "gzip filename". 303 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 304% 305To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use 306"zcat" or "zmore" to view it. 307 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 308% 309To see how much disk space is left on your partitions, use 310 311 df -h 312 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 313% 314To see the 10 largest files on a directory or partition, use 315 316 du /partition_or_directory_name | sort -rn | head 317 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 318% 319To determine whether a file is a text file, executable, or some other type 320of file, use 321 322 file filename 323 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 324% 325Time to change your password? Type "passwd" and follow the prompts. 326 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 327% 328Want to know how many words, lines, or bytes are contained in a file? Type 329"wc filename". 330 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 331% 332Need to print a manpage? Use 333 334 man name_of_manpage | col -bx | lpr 335 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 336% 337Need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try 338 339 col -bx < dosfile > newfile 340 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 341% 342Forget what directory you are in? Type "pwd". 343 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 344% 345If you are in the C shell and have just installed a new program, you won't 346be able to run it unless you first type "rehash". 347 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 348% 349Need to leave your terminal for a few minutes and don't want to logout? 350Use "lock -p". When you return, use your password as the key to unlock the 351terminal. 352 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 353% 354Need to find the location of a program? Use "locate program_name". 355 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 356% 357Forget how to spell a word or a variation of a word? Use 358 359 look portion_of_word_you_know 360 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 361% 362To see the last 10 lines of a long file, use "tail filename". To see the 363first 10 lines, use "head filename". 364 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 365% 366To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the 367command name. 368 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 369% 370To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename". 371 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 372% 373To find out the hostname associated with an IP address, use 374 375 dig -x IP_address 376 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 377% 378If you use the C shell, add the following line to the .cshrc file in your 379home directory to prevent core files from being written to disk: 380 381 limit coredumpsize 0 382 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 383% 384If you need a reminder to leave your terminal, type "leave +hhmm" where 385"hhmm" represents in how many hours and minutes you need to leave. 386 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 387% 388Need to do a search in a manpage or in a file you've sent to a pager? Use 389"/search_word". To repeat the same search, type "n" for next. 390 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 391% 392Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox 393Easter, use "ncal -o" instead. 394 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 395% 396Need to see your routing table? Type "netstat -rn". The entry with the G 397flag is your gateway. 398 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 399% 400Need to see which daemons are listening for connection requests? Use 401"sockstat -4l" for IPv4, and "sockstat -l" for IPv4 and IPv6. 402 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 403% 404Can't remember if you've installed a certain package or not? Try "pkg_info | 405grep package_name". 406 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 407% 408Got some time to kill? Try typing "hangman". 409 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 410% 411To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl-U". 412 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 413% 414To repeat the last command in the C shell, type "!!". 415 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 416% 417Need to quickly empty a file? Use "echo > filename". 418 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 419% 420To see all directories on a DragonFly BSD system, type 421 422 ls -R / | more 423% 424To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type 425"ifconfig -u". 426 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 427% 428To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type 429 430 ifconfig -a 431 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 432% 433You can save your kernel startup configuration with kget(8). The 434configuration can be edited at boot time with 'boot -c' command in loader. 435See boot(8), loader(8) for details. 436% 437You can open up a new split-screen window in (n)vi with :N or :E and then 438use ^w to switch between the two. 439% 440sh (the default bourne shell in DragonFly BSD) supports command-line editing. 441Just ``set -o emacs'' or ``set -o vi'' to enable it. 442% 443When you've made modifications to a file in vi(1) and then find that 444you can't write it, type ``<ESC>!rm -f %'' then ``:w!'' to force the 445write 446 447This won't work if you don't have write permissions to the directory 448and probably won't be suitable if you're editing through a symbolic link. 449% 450If you want to quickly check for duplicate package/port installations, 451try the following pkg_info command. 452 453 pkg_info | sort | sed -e 's/-[0-9].*$//' | \ 454 uniq -c | grep -v '^[[:space:]]*1' 455% 456Want to use sed(1) to edit a file in place? Well, to replace every 'e' with 457an 'o', in a file named 'foo', you can do: 458 459 sed -i.bak s/e/o/g foo 460 461And you'll get a backup of the original in a file named 'foo.bak', but if you 462want no backup: 463 464 sed -i '' s/e/o/g foo 465