A wide variety of documentation is available for FreeBSD, on this web site, on other web sites, and available over the counter.
All the documentation on this site can be downloaded in a variety of different formats (HTML, Postscript, PDF, and more) and compression schemes (BZip2, Zip) from the FreeBSD FTP site.
This documentation is provided and maintained by the FreeBSD Documentation Project, and we are always looking for people to contribute new documentation and maintain existing documentation.
The FreeBSD FAQ
(faq)
Frequently Asked Questions, and answers, covering all
aspects of FreeBSD.
The FreeBSD Handbook
(handbook)
A constantly evolving, comprehensive resource for FreeBSD
users.
The
FreeBSD Developer's Handbook (developers-handbook)
For people who want to develop software for FreeBSD (and not
just people who are developing FreeBSD itself).
The
FreeBSD Architecture Handbook (arch-handbook)
For FreeBSD system developers. This book covers the
architectural details of many important FreeBSD kernel
subsystems.
The Porter's
Handbook (porters-handbook)
Essential reading if you plan on providing a port of a third
party piece of software.
Chapter 2
of "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating
System" (design-44bsd)
Donated by Addison-Wesley, provides a design overview of 4.4BSD,
from which FreeBSD was originally derived.
Chapter
8 of "The FreeBSD Corporate Networker's Guide"
(corp-net-guide)
Donated by Addison-Wesley, provides an in-depth look at using
FreeBSD to provide printing services to Windows, NT, and Novell
hosts.
The FreeBSD
Documentation Project Primer for New Contributors
(fdp-primer)
Everything you need to know in order to start contributing to the
FreeBSD Documentation Project.
The
Roadmap for 5-STABLE (5-roadmap)
Describes medium-term development and release engineering
plans leading to the 5-STABLE branch point.
Integration
of Checkpoint VPN-1/Firewall-1 and FreeBSD IPsec
(checkpoint)
How to configure Checkpoint VPN-1/Firewall-1 and FreeBSD
IPsec.
The
Committer's Guide (committers-guide)
Introductory information for FreeBSD committers.
Console
Server Tutorial (console-server)
How to setup a FreeBSD based console server with a cheap
multi-port serial card.
Contributing
to FreeBSD (contributing)
How to contribute to the FreeBSD Project.
The
List of FreeBSD Contributors (contributors)
A list of organizations and individuals who have helped
enhance FreeBSD.
Setting up a
CVS repository - The FreeBSD way (cvs-freebsd)
How to set up a CVS repository that uses the same CVSROOT
infrastructure as the FreeBSD project.
CVSup
Advanced Points (cvsup-advanced)
An article with some tips about the subtleties of
CVSup.
Dialup
firewalling with FreeBSD (dialup-firewall)
How to set up a firewall using PPP and ipfw over a dialup link
with dynamically assigned IP addresses.
Creating
a diskless X server (diskless-x)
How to create a diskless X server.
The Euro symbol
on FreeBSD (euro)
How to configure FreeBSD and related applications to display the
new Euro symbol.
Explaining
BSD (explaining-bsd)
An answer to the question ``What is BSD?''
FreeBSD
From Scratch (fbsd-from-scratch)
How to automatically compile, install and configure a system from
scratch (i.e. to an empty file system), including your favorite
ports.
Filtering
Bridges (filtering-bridges)
Configuring firewalls and filtering on FreeBSD hosts acting as
bridges rather than routers.
Fonts and
FreeBSD (fonts)
A description of the various font technologies in FreeBSD, and
how to use them with different programs.
Formatting
media on FreeBSD (formatting-media)
How to slice, partition, and format fixed and removable media on
FreeBSD.
How
to get the best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list
(freebsd-questions)
Tips and tricks to help you maximize the chances of getting
useful information from the -questions mailing list.
Working with Hats
(hats)
A committer's guide to working with ``hats'' (other
committers with authority over specific areas of
FreeBSD).
Mirroring FreeBSD
(hubs)
The all in one guide for mirroring the FreeBSD website,
CVSup servers, FTP servers, and more.
Independent
Verification of IPsec Functionality in FreeBSD
(ipsec-must)
A method for experimentally verifying IPsec
functionality.
Java, and
Jakarta Tomcat (java-tomcat)
Information on setting up Java and Jakarta Tomcat on a FreeBSD
system.
FreeBSD on Laptops
(laptop)
Information about running FreeBSD on a laptop.
Frequently
Asked Questions About The FreeBSD Mailing Lists
(mailing-list-faq)
How to best use the mailing lists, such as how to help
avoid frequently-repeated discussions.
An MH Primer
(mh)
An introduction to using the MH mail reader on
FreeBSD.
Using
FreeBSD with other operating systems (multi-os)
How to install FreeBSD alongside one or more different operating
systems on the same computer.
FreeBSD
First Steps (new-users)
For people coming to FreeBSD and &unix; for the first
time.
Pluggable
Authentication Modules (pam)
A guide to the PAM system and modules under
FreeBSD.
Package
building procedures (portbuild)
Describes the approach used by the FreeBSD port
manager team to regularly build ports into packages.
It describes the portbuild cluster, as well as the tools
needed to do incremental, experimental, and official release
package builds.
FreeBSD
Problem Report Handling Guidelines (pr-guidelines)
Recommended practices for handling FreeBSD problem
reports.
Writing
FreeBSD Problem Reports (problem-reports)
How to best formulate and submit a problem report to the
FreeBSD Project.
PXE booting
FreeBSD (pxe)
How to create an Intel PXE server using FreeBSD, and how to
configure a FreeBSD client to boot from a PXE server.
FreeBSD as
a greylist mail server (relaydelay)
Implementing a greylist mail server on FreeBSD
using Sendmail, MySQL, Perl and the relaydelay
software. This is an excellent method to use in the
fight against spam.
FreeBSD
Release Engineering (releng)
Describes the approach used by the FreeBSD release
engineering team to make production quality releases of the
FreeBSD Operating System. It describes the tools available
for those interested in producing customized FreeBSD releases
for corporate rollouts or commercial productization.
FreeBSD
Release Engineering for Third Party Packages
(releng-packages)
Describes the approach used by the FreeBSD
release engineering team to produce a high quality package set
suitable for official FreeBSD release media. This document is
a work in progress, but eventually it will cover the process
used to build a clean package set on the FreeBSD.org "Ports
Cluster", how to configure any other set of machines as a
ports cluster, how to split up the packages for the release
media, and how to verify that a package set is
consistent.
Serial
and UART devices (serial-uart)
Detailed information about the use of serial ports on FreeBSD,
including several multi-port serial cards.
FreeBSD
and Solid State Devices (solid-state)
The use of solid state disk devices in FreeBSD.
Storage Devices
(storage-devices)
Detailed information about using storage devices with FreeBSD,
including ESDI disks, and SCSI disks, tape drives, and CDROM
drives.
Bootstrapping
Vinum: A Foundation for Reliable Servers (vinum)
A gentle introduction to failure-resilient servers and
step-by-step instructions for building one with Vinum.
Design
elements of the FreeBSD VM system (vm-design)
An easy to follow description of the design of the FreeBSD
virtual memory system.
Zip-drives
and FreeBSD (zip-drive)
How to format, mount, and use an Iomega Zip (SCSI, IDE, or
parallel) Drive on FreeBSD.
4.4BSD Documents: This is a hypertext version of the 4.4BSD documents from /usr/share/doc, where you will find the documents on a FreeBSD machine (if you install the doc distribution).
Info Documents: This is a hypertext version of the Info documents from /usr/share/info, where you will find the Info documents on a FreeBSD machine (if you install the info distribution).
Various independent efforts have also produced a great deal of useful information about FreeBSD.
A Comprehensive Guide to FreeBSD - an attempt at a more readable, "book-like" tutorial explaining the FreeBSD Operating System. Intended for people new to both FreeBSD and UNIX. Currently a work in progress.
Niels Jorgensen has authored an academic study on the dynamics of the FreeBSD development process: ``Putting it All in the Trunk, Incremental Software Development in the FreeBSD Open Source Project'' [Information Systems Journal (2001) 11, 321-336].
Computer Bits, an Internet online magazine, has, since March 1996, been running an excellent series of FreeBSD related articles in their column titled The Network Community, by Ted Mittelstaedt.
Some of the more popular articles include: Setting up a FreeBSD-based mail server, Network Address Translation, and Building a fax server.
Kirk McKusick, one of the original architects of BSD at U.C. Berkeley, teaches two 4.4BSD Kernel Internals courses using FreeBSD. For those unable to attend the courses in person, a video tape series is also now available.
FreeBSD How-To's for the Lazy and Hopeless is another somewhat more light-hearted attempt to provide more readable "how-to" style information on setting up and configuring FreeBSD.
The Linux+FreeBSD mini-HOWTO describes how to use Linux and FreeBSD on the same system. It introduces FreeBSD and discusses how the two operating systems can cooperate, e.g. by sharing swap space.
FreeBSD Installation Details for Newbies. This document has been imported into The FreeBSD Handbook.
Writing an ISA device driver. This document has been imported into The Developers Handbook.
FreeBSD Assembly Language Programming Tutorial. This document has been imported into The Developers Handbook.
The SMP support page contains information on the SMP support in FreeBSD 4.X and earlier.
Appendix A from the college textbook Operating Systems Concepts by Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne has been made available online in PDF format. The appendix is dedicated to FreeBSD and offers a good introduction to FreeBSD's internals.
The Open Directory Project offers an excellent selection of links for FreeBSD, including a list of prominent users which can be helpful for marketing purposes.
Articles in the press about FreeBSD.
The following newsgroups contain discussion pertinent to FreeBSD users:
The FreeBSD project's current statement about its Year 2000 compatibility.
A monthly (sometimes bi-weekly) newsletter announcing recent developments in the FreeBSD arena. Subscribe to freebsd-announce to receive this newsletter via e-mail.
If you like digging your fingers into source code, here is a hypertext version of the FreeBSD kernel source. This is brought to you courtesy of Warren Toomey.
The industry leader in BSD news.
Like FreeBSD itself, this documentation is the product of a volunteer effort. The goals of the project are outlined here, as are the procedures for submitting corrections and new material.
The FreeBSD Diary is a collection of how-to entries aimed at UNIX novices. The aim is to provide a set of step-by-step guides to installing and configuring various ports.
The BSD Dev Center includes two regular columns on FreeBSD, featuring tips and tutorials.
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