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BSD Hacks
Dru writes the BSD Basics column on O'Reilly & Associates' OnLamp. Her clarity and fluid style are perfect for those looking to understand aspects of the BSD operating systems. I have had some email communications with Dru about various New York City *BSD User Group-related activities, and managed to speak with her several times at BSDCan this past May.
Like most computer nerds, Dru has a sense of humor. Unlike most, however, she's actually funny.
BSD Hacks is the first book that is almost solely focused on hacks for sysadmins, without boring you with the details for basic operating system installation and configuration that has been so well documented elsewhere. BSD Hacks is not just for sysadmins, though. Intermediate and advanced BSD users will also find the book an excellent tool. For those who find difficulty in BSD installs and other fundamentals, on the other hand, it's best to start with the FreeBSD Handbook, the NetBSD Guide or the OpenBSD FAQ.
There's lots of good hacks buried in the various BSD books, around the internet in different HOWTOs and tutorials. But BSD hacking is the sole purpose of BSD Hacks; there's no need to browse through install screens and overviews of TCP/IP before getting to the heart of the matter.
With 100 listed hacks, multiplied by an impressive level of detailed angles for each, Dru provides an array that demands the placement of this book right in your server room, not in a pile of "must-read-at-some-distant-point-in-the-future" texts.
The majority of hacks are applicable to all the BSDs, including Darwin and OS X, although some are specific to one BSD or another.
This review obviously can't list every hack, although you would be smart to sit and work through the book yourself over a weekend or two. But it is possible to provide a good flavor of BSD Hacks in brief. O'Reilly and Associates does give a good glimpse on their Sample Hacks page, but let's do a quick work through ourselves.
The first chapter is called "Customizing the User Environment," and is probably best for end-users looking to go beyond their first steps. But it does include some useful hacks, such as "Use an Interactive Shell" that certainly fit well into the arsenal of any sysadmin, not to mention Hack #12 "Use Multiple Screens on One Terminal."
The second chapter, "Dealing with Files and Filesystems" also contains gems for both end-users and sysadmins. The use of mtree, which maps a directory hierarchy, is mentioned as a tool for recovery. Later on in chapter 6, Dru details its use for making a hacked data integrity checker, thus filling the role often played by products such as Tripwire.
Another great tool Dru covers in the second chapter is g4u, a free ghosting program that gives you the ability to perform quick restores over ftp. Ghosting a drive image is an incredibly useful tool, whether it's about replicating servers or doing a quick reinstall and configuration when a server fails in an emergency.
Chapter 3 is entitled "Boot and Login Environments." It gives some hacks that aren't just for basic system administration, but also some useful security ones including changing your /etc/passwd file to Blowfish encryption and utilizing OPIE for one-time passwords, which is built into FreeBSD.
"Backup Up" is the focus of Chapter 4. It includes some very creative methods of dealing with maintaining that necessity, and also includes an excellent primer on Bacula, which is increasingly gaining prominence as a cross-platform backup system.
Chapter 5 covers "Network Hacks," and continues on educating a sysadmin. Included in this chapter is the tcpdump program, a vital tool for watching traffic flowing by your network interfaces.
There's a strong security focus in Chapter 6, entitled "Securing the System." While security hacks are sprinkled generously throughout the book, this chapter works with firewalling with IPF and PF, in addition to covering SSH and Snort. It also includes the earlier mentioned 'intrusion detection-lite' approach with mtree.
Chapter 7, "Going Beyond the Basics" explores scripting, analyzing dreaded buffer overflows and more. Dru also includes a bit on "Creating a Trade Show Demo," not something you'd expect documented in print anywhere, but nevertheless quite useful for anyone working for the BSDs at a conference.
Dru continues with "Keeping Up-to-Date" in Chapter 8, which includes useful details on upgrading and downgrading your installed ports.
The final chapter is "Grokking BSD." "Grok," as Dru comments, refers to the science fiction writer Heinlein's Martian phrase for having a "thorough understanding." Dru covers creating your own manual pages, dealing with custom patches, playing with dictionaries and more.
Certainly there are no walls between each chapter, as many of the hacks could be shifted around. All the more reason to work your way through the book from beginning to end.
One useful addition for this book could have been somehow denoting which of the BSDs (in some cases, it's all of them) to which each listed hack can be applied. Certainly not all are available to Darwin and Apple's OS X. And certainly there's no point in making the OpenBSD /etc/passwd file encrypted in Blowfish, since that is its default.
While many of the hacks are found somewhere in the manual pages, on some useful website, buried in another book or in the minds of some developer somewhere, they're not necessarily in the annals of official documentation. But there's no single book or site that provides the depth and breadth that Dru provides. She managed to tap into the thoughts of dozens of developers and sysadmins around the world, greatly enhancing the variety of hacks in this book.
As a side note, the scope of BSD Hacks isn't limited to just the BSD family. Many of these are likely applicable to Linux and the other UNIX systems. But with recent, impressive increases in the BSD install base, there's a good chance that you can access a BSD box somewhere.
Whether you're a sysadmin managing hundreds of servers, or a power user ready to go beyond the obvious, BSD Hacks belongs next to your CRT.
You can purchase BSD Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
From the write-up "have hit the bookstores during the recent past"
Yes, those are much easier to review than those that arrive in the recent future.
FYI, the word you are looking for is "recently".
HTH
Q: What do you call a *BSD developers convention?
A: A mortuary!
Good News Everyone!
Turns out that *BSD is stronger than ever!
According to an Inernetnews article, Netcraft has confirmed that *BSD has "dramatically increased its market penetration over the last year."
There has been a steady increase in *BSD developers over the past decade.
There are currently 307 FreeBSD developers as of the 2004 core team election.
You can read more about FreeBSD here
If you would like to try out a BSD, you can download: FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, or DragonflyBSD
Enjoy!
*BSD is... ALIVE!
I can hear the sound of a million BSD-is-dying trolls banging on their keyboards.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
Is a hacks book a good way to go about learning more about the insides of an OS (BSD) and how it works, or are there other books out there for this purpose? I know elementary UNIX (if you count Terminal OS X as UNIX) but I'm not sure if books like this are a good way to broaden the scope of what I know in the language, or just specific directions and instructions on how to get some things power users have always wanted to work... to work.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
Do you realize that nobody cares about your shitty and subjective comparison, true?
Of course, todays linux is good, but major linux vendors should to make a choice between developing server os or system for desktop applications. We all know there lots of differences. Server OS cannot be easy-to-use. And desktop cannot be extremely stable.
Visit Tutorials & guides collection
Although more basic/moderate in experience, it seems well partitioned and presents many of the important topics in OS admin. The 'Grok' section is intriguing.
BSD (to me) would be an interesting study, as it is a familiar design, but has a different license structure and fan base.
Makes me want to BSD an old 'puter and get a *nix/*nix/win (lone client laptop) network.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/
I happen to own Secure Architectures with openBSD. While it covers a lot of ground found in other admin books as well, there are some nice things to be found here. Especially the comments on how-not-to-do-it were sometimes... well let's say useful :-)
Click on the Mystery Futures Link!
Please login to access my lawn
False!
Dang! And I thought BSD was dying... guess Daryl better not find out...
Good News Everyone!
Mike Smith now works for Apple, whose OS is based on BSD.
Check it out: www.lemis.com/~grog/msmr.html
and at: daemonnews, under "BSD at Apple"
He didn't like the direction that v5 was taking so he quit and starting writing BSD code for Apple.
It's good to see BSD getting some well deserved recognition.
Although BSD isn't commonly seen as an end platform in practice (with some notable exceptions), the code and technology in it are probably used in favorite OS no matter what OS that is.
So for once guys, be you linux fans, windows fans, or OS X fans, tip your hats. We should all be encouraging the growth and development of BSD.
Unfortunately this is just another OS. Business don't care what we love. I will never suggest FreeBSD to customer who need another OS independently how much I love BSD. But sometimes I really hate linux, don't care I use them :-)
Visit Tutorials & guides collection
n/t
BSD may be dying but Ninnle Linux is stronger than ever, and so is NinnleBSD!
There is no question. This book is useful and one of the best books that I've seen for a long time.
I'm using FreeBSD 4 and 5. That's why I like this book really much. It gives so many examples how to cope with shell settings, file systems, backups and many other typical problems. I have learned a lot from this book.
This here, is not the whole truth:
The majority of hacks are applicable to all the BSDs, including Darwin and OS X, although some are specific to one BSD or another.While reading this book you will find quite a lot passages saying: "For NetBSD, look at: http://...", "For OpenBSD, try: http://...", "Unfortunatelly, NetBSD..." or explaining NetBSD/OpenBSD features in one short paragraph and pointing to man-pages, while FreeBSD is explained with lots of details. I mean, this does not disturb me, but it might be annoying for other users.
supported for longer
So they've found a new way to hide "BSD is dying" in their trolls?
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
What is it with the "Slashdot Scene" that the mere mention of *BSD invokes insults from every corner. I can see this coming from the Microsoft crowd, but from FOSS advocates?
Come on people, it's not like you pay for it! It's just as free as Linux! Each serve their purpose. Now, if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all.
I see someone is still taking up arms in the "hack vs. crack" nomeclature war. I thought we had surrendered.
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
Netcraft?
How Can BSD be dead? I'm running it... it's doing its job... looks alive to me!
Documentation is a good thing.
Good documentation is considerably better.
It's good to see that the market is there for decent, affordable reference works for more than just Linux and Windows (though the latter is debatable... and that's not trolling, I have been a Windows admin for years and the thing that keeps me running Linux and *BSD baxes in my environments is that, as a rule, the documentation is a hell of a lot more affordable and accessible and generally better).
It is a shame that any BSD story on slashdot has to be inundated with the same tired "BSD is dead" trolls. Not that I am surprised to see trolling here, but get some creativity FFS (and that doesn't mean Fast Filesystem in this context).
You aren't even worth the mod points to flag you for what you really are, you sad, friendless twits.
It is official - Netcraft now confirms: Humanity is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Human community when IDC confirmed that Human market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all things on the net. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that Humans has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Humanity is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last [samag.com] in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin [amazingkreskin.com] to predict Humanity's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Humanity faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for Humanity because Humanity is dying. Things are looking very bad for Humans. As many of us are already aware, Humanity continues to lose market share. Blood flows like a river of red ink.
"Smart People"(tm) are the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core reproducers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time people Stephen King and Feynman only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: Humanity is dying.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
Human watchdog organisation BBC states that there are around 42,140 nuclear warheads poised to annihilate Humanity . How many People are there? Let's see. The number 6,382,978,111 was given by http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/ipc/popclockw. Therefore there are about 6,383,000,000 humans. Therefore there are about 6,400,000,000 people. A recent article put China's population at about 20 percent of the world population. Therefore there are about 1,261,832,482 chinnese people. This is consistent with the number of people in china.
Due to the troubles of world politics, abysmal birth rates in Japan and Italy, germ warfare, natural plauges, famine, and so on, people are largely screw. Now more people are dead, and with the death rate holding at a steady 100% there's little hope.
All major surveys show that Humans are pretty damn stupid. Humanity is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If Humanity is to survive at all it will be through space travel. Earth continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, Humanity is dead.
Fact: Humanity is dying
This book (which I picked up in a recent book shopping binge) reminds me most of Unix Power Tools. I own the 2nd edition and I've reviewed the 3rd edition. The similarities to the "Hacks" series is striking (not surprising, considering that they're both published by O'Reilly). The "Hacks" books seem to be shorter and with fewer tips receiving more thorough treatment.
A comment I wrote for the Power Tools review applies to BSD Hacks as well:
Among the most hyperlinked book I've seen, this book is filled with hundreds of useful tips and, perhaps most interestingly, Unix culture. It's only marginally successful as a reference manual or as a teaching aid as it focuses on the useful-but-obscure aspects of Unix. Where it truly excels is in steeping the reader in ``How do I''-style Unix lore until it comes out of their pores.
"The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth." -- Bene Gesserit Precept
Keep in mind that the BSD's share alot of code with eachother.
They have different niches that attract different type of developers.
If you knew anything about programming, you mind understand that.
That would be great!!!
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And finally, we offer the Deluxe Heaven package for $39.95 USD a month. With this package you will actually get to see the Lord himself. And no matter how cruel, mean or bad you were on Earth, this package will guarantee your entry into heaven and at the right-hand side of God. But hurry, limited quantities available for first-time purchase.
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NOBODY does "whatever the f***" they want with OpenBSD. Not as long as Theo draws breath.
I don't get it either.
It truly boggles my mind. What's the problem? Does it upset the trolls so that another free unix-like operating system exists? Deal with it. You don't have to use it.
Whatever. My real beef (as stated in my post somewhere below) is that we get the same tired cut and paste trolls, which waste my time with screens full of crap when I want to peruse the comments.
I am curious though... how many of the trolls have actually worked with a *BSD system? More to the point have any of these trolls ever actually been in a network/systems admin position (and sorry, helpdesk doesn't qualify as network admin -- I've been both and it is a big difference)?
If you look at the userland "linux" distros, there are a lot of them and most of them are incompatible with each other.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Those books hurt when thrown through bookstore windows, one hit my head :(
They're quite potent when they hit anything, bookstores, lamps, craniums, etc.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
My good friend Michael Vince had two of his scripts included in the BSD Hacks book, including Quickpatch which was also featured as a sample chapter
His projects website is here at ROQ.COM and also has the very useful IPFilter script.
As an aside, he said that in his bio in the book, OReilly credited him with different hacks than the ones he actually wrote... editorial snafu.
smile, it makes everyone else wonder what you're up to
- Hubert
I bought a copy of Secure Architectures with OpenBSD and I think it is quite good, especially if you consider its relatively low price.
It's not that it cover every detail of every feature of OpenBSD, rather it many gives some background to them that the (ohh so excellent) man pages doesn't provide. For example: while the man page explain what rarpd does, the book admits that the service is quite archaic. :-)
I like it, and have learned a lot from it, even then I thought I knew most of it (or know where to look).
But how do we find out where to send our money if you post as AC? Please email me with the address to send the $$$!
Sincerely,
AC
Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh
He said "Penetrated."
Mr. T pitied this fool on 27 July 1992.
From the samples, it doesn't look good at all... It was written by someone with rather limited knowledge, who doesn't really like to do things the right way.
For instance, hack 100 tells you to copy the ~/.Xauthority file from user "dru" to root's home, then set DISPLAY. This is so root can display an X11 window...
The right way to do this is to:
A) use "xhost" as "dru". Specifically, "xhost +local:root" will give root access to the X server. If you're root, it's easy to su to dru, run xhost, then exit back to the root shell.
B) instead of exporting "DISPLAY" manually, it's best to just leave the "-l" off of SU, and inherent that variable automatically. Afterall, it could be DISPLAY=:19.0
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Dragonfly BSD....a BSD I have not tried yet? Thanks, I'll look into it shortly.
For those of you that think BSD is dead, look at Net|Scaler. It's clients inlcude WebEx, MSN, AOL, Amazon, Google, Yahoo, Royal Bank of Scotland, Autozone.com and thousands of other high volume, high traffic, sites. These sites demand the highest consideration for uptime, reliablity, throughput, and management functions. They all rely on the BSD based Net|Scaler to load balance, SSL offload, Content Switch, URL Filter and protect their back-end server farms.
Do any of these new books cover DragonFly BSD? I'm in the process of switching all my computers over from FreeBSD to DragonFly. It would sure be nice to have some DragonFly books.
Anyone know of any good literature out there on *BSD written as such that it is geared towards experienced Linux sysadmins? i.e. offering a list of key differences (or similarities) on various levels of system organization, administration, common/best community practicies etc.?
Uh? I'm _RIGHT_. You only deserve to be wrong, if you like. Seriously, how can anyone take that pile of shit seriously? You've to be drugged to eat that. Hell, I've never used BSD nor I intend to but if you beileve shit like that, lemme give you and advice - kill yourself.
Look at some of the most popular sites out there:
- www.slashdot.org: Linux
- www.sourceforge.net: Linux
- www.hotmail.com: Win2K
- www.msn.com: Win2K (w/ FreeBSD backup?)
- www.netcraft.com: FreeBSD
- www.yahoo.com: FreeBSD
- www.google.com: Linux
- www.apache.org: FreeBSD (this one gets weight, I believe)
- www.oracle.com: Solaris
- www.mozilla.org: Linux
Some other sites:Also see this article at Netcraft. Sure, Linux outnumbers BSD. But that's not the point. I hate to disappoint you all, but BSD is not dying.
are some of the biggest biters this side of YRO?
I'm just sayin....
- Laci Peterson
- Lori Hacking
- Nicole
Simpson
- BSD
Submit your response along with a stamped self-addressed envelope.See contest rules for further details. Void where prohibited.
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"If you look at the userland "linux" distros, there are a lot of them and most of them are incompatible with each other."
./configure clueless ./clueless
tar -xzvf clueless.tar.gz
cd clueless
make
make install clueless
rpm not found
deb not found
your distro is incompatible...you are a package junkie
whois clueless
package junkies like aristotle dude
haha quality a BSD isn't dying troll.
:)
that'll learn em
Sorry pal, you may think you are helping the cause but you are actually hurting it.
What linux needs to do is to stop forking the core libraries and functionality. There are way too many linux distros out there claiming to be for general use.
Linux needs to have an agreed upon minimum standard set of libraries, a standard basic GUI toolkit and a standard basic package management system.
I personally think how apps are installed should be rethought to make it easier for users to move apps around or to uninstall at wimp. The *nix/linux way was great when HD sizes were small but now we have really big HDs so you all might want to look at local installs of dependencies for each of your apps.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
http://software.silicon.com/os/0,39024651,10006289 ,00.htmo ry_id=225 94
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?st
Yeah, it's sold flawlessly... And I only had to wait 4 hours before the store opened!!!
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