1Having trouble using fetch through a firewall? Try setting the environment 2variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see fetch(3) for more details. 3% 4By pressing "Scroll Lock" you can use the arrow keys to scroll backward 5through the console output. Press "Scroll Lock" again to turn it off. 6% 7Want colour in your directory listings? Use "ls -G". "ls -F" is also useful, 8and they can be combined as "ls -FG". 9% 10If you'd like to keep track of applications in the pkgsrc tree, take a look 11at pkgsrc.se; 12 13 http://www.pkgsrc.se/ 14% 15To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example 16 17 find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls 18 19will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name. 20 -- Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com> 21% 22In tcsh, you can `set autolist' to have the shell automatically show 23all the possible matches when doing filename/directory expansion. 24% 25You can `set autologout = 30' to have tcsh log you off automatically 26if you leave the shell idle for more than 30 minutes. 27% 28If you `set filec' (file completion) in tcsh and write a part of the 29filename, pressing TAB will show you the available choices when there 30is more than one, or complete the filename if there's only one match. 31% 32You can press up-arrow or down-arrow to walk through a list of 33previous commands in tcsh. 34% 35You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'. 36% 37If you `set watch = (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when 38someone logs in or out of your system. 39% 40Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%m %# ' 41% 42Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m%# ' 43% 44Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%~%# ' 45% 46Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%n@%m:%/%# ' 47% 48Nice tcsh prompt: set prompt = '[%B%m%b] %B%~%b%# ' 49% 50Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# ' 51% 52If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in 53kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your 54environment to 'K'. You can also use 'M' for Megabytes or 'G' for 55Gigabytes. If you want df(1) to automatically select the best size 56then use 'df -h'. 57% 58To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value" 59where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value. 60% 61To change an environment variable in /bin/sh use: 62 63 $ VARIABLE="value" 64 $ export VARIABLE 65% 66You can use /etc/make.conf to control the options used to compile software 67on this system. Example entries are in 68/etc/defaults/make.conf. 69% 70To do a fast search for a file, try 71 72 locate filename 73 74locate uses a database that is updated every Saturday (assuming your computer 75is running DragonFly BSD at the time) to quickly find files based on name only. 76% 77In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this: 78 79 grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...] 80 81This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string. grep can 82also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details. 83% 84You can use the 'fetch' command to retrieve files over ftp or http. 85 86 fetch http://www.dragonflybsd.org/ 87 88will download the front page of the DragonFly BSD web site. 89% 90In order to make fetch (the DragonFly BSD downloading tool) ask for 91username/password when it encounter a password-protected web page, you can set 92the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'. 93% 94You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them 95in a startup file for the shell. The name of the startup file varies 96depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .login, bash, sh, ksh and zsh use 97.profile. When using bash, sh, ksh or zsh, don't forget to export the 98variable. 99% 100If you are running xterm, the default TERM variable will be 'xterm'. If you 101set this environment variable to 'xterm-color' instead, a lot of programs will 102use colors. You can do this by 103 104 TERM=xterm-color; export TERM 105 106in Bourne-derived shells, and 107 108 setenv TERM xterm-color 109 110in csh-derived shells. 111% 112If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with 113 114 xset b off 115% 116You can look through a file in a nice text-based interface by typing 117 118 less filename 119% 120The default editor in DragonFly BSD is vi, which is efficient to use when you 121have learned it, but somewhat user-unfriendly. To use ee (an easier but less 122powerful editor) instead, set the environment variable EDITOR to /usr/bin/ee 123% 124If you accidently end up inside vi, you can quit it by pressing Escape, colon 125(:), q (q), bang (!) and pressing return. 126% 127You can use aliases to decrease the amount of typing you need to do to get 128commands you commonly use. Examples of fairly popular aliases include (in 129bourne shell style, as in /bin/sh, bash, ksh, and zsh): 130 131 alias lf="ls -FA" 132 alias ll="ls -lA" 133 alias su="su -m" 134 135In csh or tcsh, these would be 136 137 alias lf ls -FA 138 alias ll ls -lA 139 alias su su -m 140 141To remove an alias, you can usually use 'unalias aliasname'. To list all 142aliases, you can usually type just 'alias'. 143% 144In order to support national characters for european languages in tools like 145less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment 146variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.ISO8859-1'. 147% 148You can search for documentation on a keyword by typing 149 150 apropos keyword 151% 152Man pages are divided into section depending on topic. There are 9 different 153sections numbered from 1 (General Commands) to 9 (Kernel Developer's Manual). 154You can get an introduction to each topic by typing 155 156 man <number> intro 157 158In other words, to get the intro to general commands, type 159 160 man 1 intro 161% 162DragonFly BSD is started up by the program 'init'. The first thing init does 163when starting multiuser mode (ie, starting the computer up for normal use) is 164to run the shell script /etc/rc. By reading /etc/rc, you can learn a lot about 165how the system is put together, which again will make you more confident about 166what happens when you do something with it. 167% 168If you want to play CDs with DragonFly BSD, a utility for this is already 169included. Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more. (You may need to set 170the CDROM environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.) 171% 172If you have a CD-ROM drive in your machine, you can make the CD-ROM that is 173presently inserted available by typing 'mount /cdrom' as root. The CD-ROM 174will be available under /cdrom/. Remember to do 'umount /cdrom' before 175removing the CD-ROM (it will usually not be possible to remove the CD-ROM 176without doing this.) 177 178Note: This tip may not work in all configurations. 179% 180You can install extra packages for DragonFly BSD by using the pkgsrc system. 181If you have installed it, you can download, compile, and install software by 182just typing 183 184 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/<category>/<package name> 185 # bmake install clean 186 187as root. The pkgsrc infrastructure will download the software, change it so 188it works on DragonFly BSD, compile it, install it, register the installation 189so it will be possible to automatically uninstall it, and clean out the 190temporary working space it used. You can remove an installed package you 191decide you do not want after all by typing 192 193 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/<category>/<package name> 194 # bmake deinstall 195 196as root. 197% 198Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ ' 199 -- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com> 200% 201To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8). If it has 202been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot. 203 -- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com> 204% 205You can use "whereis" to locate standard binary, manual page and source 206directories for the specified programs. This can be particularly handy 207when you are trying to find where in the pkgsrc tree an application is. 208 209Try "whereis netscape" and "whereis whereis". 210 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 211% 212You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a 213login shell. 214 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 215% 216You can use "pkg_info" to see a list of packages you have installed. 217 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 218% 219You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like 220the following to /etc/rc.conf: 221 222 allscreens="80x30" 223 224You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text 225modes. 226 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 227% 228Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate 229a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group. 230 -- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr> 231% 232Over quota? "du -s * | sort -n " will give you a sorted list of your 233directory sizes. 234 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 235% 236Handy bash(1) prompt: PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ " 237 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 238% 239Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's 240the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more. 241 -- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com> 242% 243"man hier" explains the layout of DragonFly BSD filesystems. 244% 245"man tuning" has tips on how to improve DragonFly BSD performance. 246% 247"man firewall" has basic instructions for creating a DragonFly BSD firewall. 248% 249You can often get answers to your questions about DragonFly BSD by searching 250in the DragonFly BSD mailing list archives at 251 252 http://leaf.dragonflybsd.org/mailarchive/ 253% 254You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your 255computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'. To get a list of what you can 256adjust, just type 'mixer'. 257% 258You can automatically download and install binary packages by doing 259 260 pkg_add <URL> 261 262where you replace <URL> with the URL to the package. This will also 263automatically install the packages the package you download is dependent on 264(ie, the packages it needs in order to work.) 265% 266You can make a log of your terminal session with script(1). 267% 268"man security" gives very good advice on how to tune the security of your 269DragonFly BSD system. 270% 271Want to see how much virtual memory you're using? Just type "swapinfo" to 272be shown information about the usage of your swap partitions. 273% 274pkgsrc/net/netcat package is useful not only for redirecting input/output 275to TCP or UDP connections, but also for proxying them. See inetd(8) for 276details. 277% 278If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can 279reinstall it with boot0cfg(8). See "man boot0cfg" for details. 280% 281Need to see the calendar for this month? Simply type "cal". To see the 282whole year, type "cal -y". 283 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 284% 285Need to quickly return to your home directory? Type "cd". 286 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 287% 288To see the last time that you logged in, use lastlogin(8). 289 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 290% 291To clear the screen, use "clear". To re-display your screen buffer, press 292the scroll lock key and use your page up button. When you're finished, 293press the scroll lock key again to get your prompt back. 294 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 295% 296To save disk space in your home directory, compress files you rarely 297use with "gzip filename". 298 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 299% 300To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use 301"zcat" or "zmore" to view it. 302 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 303% 304To see how much disk space is left on your partitions, use 305 306 df -h 307 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 308% 309To see the 10 largest files on a directory or partition, use 310 311 du /partition_or_directory_name | sort -rn | head 312 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 313% 314To determine whether a file is a text file, executable, or some other type 315of file, use 316 317 file filename 318 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 319% 320Time to change your password? Type "passwd" and follow the prompts. 321 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 322% 323Want to know how many words, lines, or bytes are contained in a file? Type 324"wc filename". 325 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 326% 327Need to print a manpage? Use 328 329 man name_of_manpage | col -bx | lpr 330 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 331% 332Need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try 333 334 col -bx < dosfile > newfile 335 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 336% 337Forget what directory you are in? Type "pwd". 338 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 339% 340If you are in the C shell and have just installed a new program, you won't 341be able to run it unless you first type "rehash". 342 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 343% 344Need to leave your terminal for a few minutes and don't want to logout? 345Use "lock -p". When you return, use your password as the key to unlock the 346terminal. 347 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 348% 349Need to find the location of a program? Use "locate program_name". 350 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 351% 352Forget how to spell a word or a variation of a word? Use 353 354 look portion_of_word_you_know 355 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 356% 357To see the last 10 lines of a long file, use "tail filename". To see the 358first 10 lines, use "head filename". 359 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 360% 361To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the 362command name. 363 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 364% 365To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename". 366 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 367% 368To find out the hostname associated with an IP address, use 369 370 dig -x IP_address 371 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 372% 373If you use the C shell, add the following line to the .cshrc file in your 374home directory to prevent core files from being written to disk: 375 376 limit coredumpsize 0 377 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 378% 379If you need a reminder to leave your terminal, type "leave +hhmm" where 380"hhmm" represents in how many hours and minutes you need to leave. 381 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 382% 383Need to do a search in a manpage or in a file you've sent to a pager? Use 384"/search_word". To repeat the same search, type "n" for next. 385 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 386% 387Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox 388Easter, use "ncal -o" instead. 389 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 390% 391Need to see your routing table? Type "netstat -rn". The entry with the G 392flag is your gateway. 393 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 394% 395Need to see which daemons are listening for connection requests? Use 396"sockstat -4l" for IPv4, and "sockstat -l" for IPv4 and IPv6. 397 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 398% 399Can't remember if you've installed a certain package or not? Try "pkg_info | 400grep package_name". 401 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 402% 403Got some time to kill? Try typing "hangman". 404 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 405% 406To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl-U". 407 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 408% 409To repeat the last command in the C shell, type "!!". 410 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 411% 412Need to quickly empty a file? Use "echo > filename". 413 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 414% 415To see all directories on a DragonFly BSD system, type 416 417 ls -R / | more 418% 419To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type 420"ifconfig -u". 421 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 422% 423To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type 424 425 ifconfig -a 426 -- Dru <genesis@istar.ca> 427% 428You can save your kernel startup configuration with kget(8). The 429configuration can be edited at boot time with 'boot -c' command in loader. 430See boot(8), loader(8) for details. 431% 432You can open up a new split-screen window in (n)vi with :N or :E and then 433use ^w to switch between the two. 434% 435sh (the default bourne shell in DragonFly BSD) supports command-line editing. 436Just ``set -o emacs'' or ``set -o vi'' to enable it. 437% 438When you've made modifications to a file in vi(1) and then find that 439you can't write it, type ``<ESC>!rm -f %'' then ``:w!'' to force the 440write 441 442This won't work if you don't have write permissions to the directory 443and probably won't be suitable if you're editing through a symbolic link. 444% 445If you want to quickly check for duplicate package/port installations, 446try the following pkg_info command. 447 448 pkg_info | sort | sed -e 's/-[0-9].*$//' | \ 449 uniq -c | grep -v '^[[:space:]]*1' 450% 451Want to use sed(1) to edit a file in place? Well, to replace every 'e' with 452an 'o', in a file named 'foo', you can do: 453 454 sed -i.bak s/e/o/g foo 455 456And you'll get a backup of the original in a file named 'foo.bak', but if you 457want no backup: 458 459 sed -i '' s/e/o/g foo 460% 461You can automatically install binary packages from a random DragonFly BSD 462mirror with the following command: 463 464 pkg_radd <package> 465 466This command also takes care about possible dependencies. See the man page 467for further information. 468% 469By default pkg_radd(1) downloads all packages from a random DragonFly BSD mirror. 470To use a particular mirror set the BINPKG_SITES environment variable 471accordingly. 472 473Example: 474 475 setenv BINPKG_SITES ftp://<mirror>/pub/DragonFly/packages/<rel>/stable/ 476 477or if you use a bourne compatible shell: 478 479 export BINPKG_SITES=ftp://<mirror>/pub/DragonFly/packages/<rel>/stable/ 480 481% 482If you want to search for a particular package, use pkg_search(1): 483 484 pkg_search <package> 485 486If you do not have a pkgsrc tree installed, pkg_search(1) will automatically 487fetch a list of available binary packages for you. 488% 489To get a detailed description of a particular pkgsrc package: 490 491 pkg_search -s <package> 492 493Note: You need a full installation of the pkgsrc tree to make this work. 494% 495Getting the latest pkgsrc tree in DragonFly BSD is fairly simple: 496 497 cd /usr 498 make pkgsrc-checkout 499 500If you want to update your pkgsrc installation issue: 501 502 cd /usr 503 make pkgsrc-update 504% 505To download the DragonFly BSD git repository into /usr/src, issue: 506 507 cd /usr 508 make git-clone 509 510To update the DragonFly BSD git repository in /usr/src, issue: 511 512 cd /usr 513 make git-update 514% 515Getting the latest pkgsrc WIP tree in DragonFly BSD is fairly simple: 516 517 cd /usr 518 make pkgsrc-wip-checkout 519 520If you want to update your pkgsrc WIP installation issue: 521 522 cd /usr 523 make pkgsrc-wip-update 524% 525After enabling a service in rc.conf(5), you can use the rc* commands to 526start/stop/reload the service. If you e.g. enabled dntpd(8) in /etc/rc.conf 527you can start it with: 528 529 rcstart dntpd 530 531To stop it: 532 533 rcstop dntpd 534 535All available commands are listed in rcrun(8). 536% 537If you look for a small Mail Transfer Agent suited for home and office 538use, have a look at the DragonFly Mail Agent (dma): 539 540 man dma 541% 542dntpd(8) synchronizes your local system clock to one or more external NTP time 543sources. To enable dntpd add the following line to your /etc/rc.conf: 544 545 dntpd_enable="YES" 546 547To start the daemon type: 548 549 rcstart dntpd 550% 551DragonFly BSD supports variant symlinks. To get more information about this 552topic see varsym(1) and varsym(2). 553% 554"man build" gives very good advice on how to build the DragonFly BSD system. 555% 556Use wmake(1) to build any element within the DragonFly BSD source tree using 557a buildworld environment. The wmake utility will accept all options and 558arguments that make(1) accepts. 559