FreeBSD Fortune

Want to use sed(1) to edit a file in place? Well, to replace every 'e' with
an 'o', in a file named 'foo', you can do:
sed -i.bak s/e/o/g foo
And you'll get a backup of the original in a file named 'foo.bak', but if you
want no backup:
sed -i '' s/e/o/g foo

2026-10-31 18:01:00 UTC

Over quota? "du -sh * | sort -h " will give you a sorted list of your
directory sizes.
-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>

2026-10-30 18:00:21 UTC

If you'd like to keep track of applications in the FreeBSD ports tree, take a
look at FreshPorts;
https://www.freshports.org/

2026-10-29 18:00:31 UTC

Want to list all files of an installed package? Enter
"pkg info -l packagename".
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-28 18:00:23 UTC

In order to make fetch (the FreeBSD downloading tool) ask for
username/password when it encounters a password-protected web page, you can set
the environment variable HTTP_AUTH to 'basic:*'.

2026-10-27 18:00:47 UTC

Do you wonder what a terminal program is doing at the moment? dd(1) does not
show any throughput? Hit "^T" (Control + t) to send SIGINFO to the process
and see what it is doing.
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-26 18:00:57 UTC

To easily configure your installed FreeBSD use bsdconfig(8).
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-25 18:00:56 UTC

Handy bash(1) prompt: PS1="\u@\h \w \!$ "
-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>

2026-10-24 17:00:32 UTC

Can't delete /usr/obj? Enter "chflags -R noschg /usr/obj" to remove the
system immutable flag for all files in /usr/obj.
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-23 17:01:00 UTC

You can adjust the volume of various parts of the sound system in your
computer by typing 'mixer <type> <volume>'. To get a list of what you can
adjust, just type 'mixer'.

2026-10-22 17:00:30 UTC

To make the "zfs list" output more script-friendly, you can suppress the
output of the headers for each column by passing the -H parameter:
zfs list -H
Another helpful option for script writers is -p, which displays the numbers
in non-rounded, exact values:
zfs list -p
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-21 17:00:16 UTC

Want to go the directory you were just in?
Type "cd -"

2026-10-20 17:00:18 UTC

If you want df(1) and other commands to display disk sizes in
kilobytes instead of 512-byte blocks, set BLOCKSIZE in your
environment to 'K'. You can also use 'M' for Megabytes or 'G' for
Gigabytes. If you want df(1) to automatically select the best size
then use 'df -h'.

2026-10-19 17:00:07 UTC

To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the
command name.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-10-18 17:00:16 UTC

Need to find the location of a program? Use "locate program_name".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-10-17 17:00:45 UTC

Time to change your password? Type "passwd" and follow the prompts.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-10-16 17:00:46 UTC

You can permanently set environment variables for your shell by putting them
in a startup file for the shell. The name of the startup file varies
depending on the shell - csh and tcsh uses .login, bash, sh, ksh and zsh use
.profile. When using bash, sh, ksh or zsh, don't forget to export the
variable.

2026-10-15 17:00:26 UTC

ZFS can display I/O statistics for a given pool using the iostat subcommand.
By default, it will display one line of current activity. To display stats
every 5 seconds run the following command (cancel with CTRL+C):
zpool iostat 5
To view individual disk activities, specify the -v parameter:
zpool iostat -v
Of course, both can be combined. For more options, see zpool(8).
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-14 17:00:52 UTC

In order to search for a string in some files, use 'grep' like this:
grep "string" filename1 [filename2 filename3 ...]
This will print out the lines in the files that contain the string. grep can
also do a lot more advanced searches - type 'man grep' for details.

2026-10-13 17:00:18 UTC

To find out the hostname associated with an IP address, use
drill -x IP_address
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-10-12 17:00:55 UTC

A user "sender" needs the following permissions set to send a ZFS dataset:
# zfs allow -u sender send,snapshot txpool
On the receiving side, the user "receiver" requires these permissions:
# zfs allow -u receiver compression,mountpoint,mount,create,receive rxpool
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-11 17:00:37 UTC

To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use
"zcat" or "zless" to view it. There is also "bzcat", "bzless", "xzcat"
and "xzless".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-10-10 17:00:43 UTC

After you compiled and installed a new version of FreeBSD, use etcupdate(8) to merge
configuration updates.
Run "etcupdate extract" once when your sources match your running system, then run
"etcupdate" after every upgrade and "etcupdate resolve" to resolve any conflicts.
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-09 17:00:32 UTC

To change an environment variable in tcsh you use: setenv NAME "value"
where NAME is the name of the variable and "value" its new value.

2026-10-08 17:00:44 UTC

If you do not want to get beeps in X11 (X Windows), you can turn them off with
xset b off

2026-10-07 17:00:30 UTC

If you want to play CDs with FreeBSD, a utility for this is already included.
Type 'cdcontrol' then 'help' to learn more. (You may need to set the CDROM
environment variable in order to make cdcontrol want to start.)

2026-10-06 17:00:09 UTC

You can prevent the removal of a ZFS snapshot by using the hold subcommand.
For example, to prevent the snapshot called milestone from deletion, run the
following command:
# zfs hold milestone_hold mypool/projects@my_milestone
The "zfs holds" command will list all current snapshots that are protected
this way (-r for a recursive list):
# zfs holds -r mypool
The TIMESTAMP column in the output of the above command is from when the
hold was created, not the snapshot it holds. The "zfs destroy" command will
echo a "dataset is busy" message on the console when it encounters a hold.
Use "zfs release" to release the hold on the snapshot:
# zfs release milestone_hold mypool/projects@my_milestone
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-05 17:00:50 UTC

Before deleting a dataset or snapshot, perform a dry run using the -n
parameter. This is to make sure you really want to delete just that
dataset/snapshot and not any dependent ones. ZFS will display the resulting
action when -n is combined with the -v option without actually performing
it:
zfs destroy -nrv mypool@mysnap
Once you are sure this is exactly what you intend to do, remove the -n
parameter to execute the destroy operation.
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-10-04 17:00:10 UTC

You can use "pkg info" to see a list of packages you have installed.

2026-10-03 17:00:14 UTC

To search for files that match a particular name, use find(1); for example
find / -name "*GENERIC*" -ls
will search '/', and all subdirectories, for files with 'GENERIC' in the name.
-- Stephen Hilton <nospam@hiltonbsd.com>

2026-10-02 17:00:16 UTC

To see all of the directories on your FreeBSD system, type
find / -type d | less
All the files?
find / -type f | less

2026-10-01 17:00:26 UTC

Want to know how much memory (in bytes) your machine has installed? Let
sysctl(8) tell you with the following command:
sysctl hw.realmem
The realmem value is memory before the kernel and modules are loaded, whereas
hw.physmem is what is left after they were loaded.
The number of active CPUs is displayed using this command:
sysctl hw.ncpu
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-30 17:00:05 UTC

Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox
Easter, use "ncal -o" instead.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-29 17:00:41 UTC

If you `set watch = (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when
someone logs in or out of your system.

2026-09-28 17:00:32 UTC

To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type
"ifconfig -u".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-26 17:00:51 UTC

Do you want to know which version of FreeBSD you are running? Enter
"freebsd-version -ku" to display kernel and userland version.
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-25 17:00:51 UTC

Want to run the same command again?
In many shells (e.g., tcsh, zsh, bash) you can type "!!".

2026-09-24 17:00:30 UTC

FreeBSD's top(1) utility displays CPU statistics by default.
To display I/O activity for each process instead, run top like this:
top -m io
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-23 17:00:01 UTC

You can often get answers to your questions about FreeBSD by searching in the
FreeBSD mailing list archives at
http://freebsd.markmail.org

2026-09-22 17:00:52 UTC

Are you looking for a package? Search for it with
"pkg search part_of_package_name"
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-21 17:00:14 UTC

"man hier" will explain the way FreeBSD filesystems are normally laid out.
-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>

2026-09-20 17:00:20 UTC

To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-19 17:00:34 UTC

To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type
ifconfig -a
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-18 17:00:26 UTC

Forget how to spell a word or a variation of a word? Use
look portion_of_word_you_know
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-17 17:00:42 UTC

You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a
login shell.
-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>

2026-09-16 17:00:08 UTC

You can limit the depth of the displayed datasets in the "zfs list" output
using the -d parameter. To display only the first level of datasets below
mypool/usr and not the ones deeper than those, run this command:
zfs list -d 1 mypool/usr
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-15 17:00:47 UTC

Need to leave your terminal for a few minutes and don't want to logout?
Use "lock -p". When you return, use your password as the key to unlock the
terminal.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-14 17:00:27 UTC

Need to see the calendar for this month? Simply type "cal". To see the
whole year, type "cal -y".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-13 17:00:38 UTC

You can disable tcsh's terminal beep if you `set nobeep'.

2026-09-12 17:00:36 UTC

If other operating systems have damaged your Master Boot Record, you can
reinstall it with gpart(8). See
"man gpart" for details.

2026-09-10 17:01:00 UTC

Sometimes a single slow HDD can cripple the performance of your entire system. You can spot one like this:
# gstat -I5s | sort -rn -k9 | head
-- Alan Somers <asomers@FreeBSD.org>
%

2026-09-09 17:00:59 UTC

Need to see your routing table? Type "netstat -rn". The entry with the G
flag is your gateway.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-08 17:00:17 UTC

If you need to create a FAT32 formatted USB thumb drive, find out its devicename
running dmesg(8) after inserting it. Then create an MBR schema, a single slice and
format it:
# gpart create -s MBR ${devicename}
# gpart add -t fat32 ${devicename}
# newfs_msdos -F 32 -L thumbdrive ${devicename}s1
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-07 17:00:56 UTC

To set a quota of 10 GB for the user named foo on a ZFS dataset, run the
following command:
# zfs set userquota@foo=10G pool/home/foo
The zfs userspace command can display the quota and current space usage:
# zfs userspace pool/home/foo
To unset a quota, assign "none" as the value.
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-06 17:00:28 UTC

If you want to recursively copy a directory preserving file and directory
attributes use
"cp -a source target"
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-09-05 17:00:36 UTC

Having trouble using fetch through a firewall? Try setting the environment
variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see fetch(3) for more details.

2026-09-04 17:00:05 UTC

Nice bash prompt: PS1='(\[$(tput md)\]\t <\w>\[$(tput me)\]) $(echo $?) \$ '
-- Mathieu <mathieu@hal.interactionvirtuelle.com>

2026-09-03 17:00:13 UTC

2026-09-02 17:00:22 UTC

Need to do a search in a manpage or in a file you've sent to a pager? Use
"/search_word". To repeat the same search, type "n" for next or "p" for
previous.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-09-01 17:00:29 UTC

You can press Ctrl-D to quickly exit from a shell, or logout from a
login shell.
-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>

2026-08-31 17:00:11 UTC

If you `set watch = (0 any any)' in tcsh, you will be notified when
someone logs in or out of your system.

2026-08-30 17:00:52 UTC

If you'd like to keep track of applications in the FreeBSD ports tree, take a
look at FreshPorts;
https://www.freshports.org/

2026-08-29 17:00:09 UTC

To see the last 10 lines of a long file, use "tail filename". To see the
first 10 lines, use "head filename". To see new lines as they're appended
to a file, use "tail -f filename".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-28 17:00:49 UTC

To quickly create an empty file, use "touch filename".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-27 17:00:57 UTC

Need to quickly return to your home directory? Type "cd".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-26 17:00:08 UTC

Simple tcsh prompt: set prompt = '%# '

2026-08-25 17:00:31 UTC

You can delete a range of ZFS snapshots (a-z) in multiple ways.
The following will delete d and all earlier snapshots:
zfs destroy mypool/data@%d
To delete d and all later snapshots:
zfs destroy mypool/data@d%
To delete all dataset snapshots:
zfs destroy mypool/data@%
Make sure to let ZFS perform a dry run (-n option) first and display (-v) what
it would do to confirm that the delete operation is removing exactly what you
intended.
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-08-24 17:00:43 UTC

You can upload the dmesg of your system to help developers get an overview of commonly
used hardware and peripherals for FreeBSD. Use the curl package to upload it like this:
curl -v -d "nickname=$USER" -d "description=FreeBSD/$(uname -m) on \
$(kenv smbios.system.maker) $(kenv smbios.system.product)" -d "do=addd" \
--data-urlencode 'dmesg@/var/run/dmesg.boot' http://dmesgd.nycbug.org/index.cgi

2026-08-23 17:00:55 UTC

"man ports" gives many useful hints about installing FreeBSD ports.

2026-08-22 17:00:59 UTC

To determine whether a file is a text file, executable, or some other type
of file, use
file filename
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-20 17:00:54 UTC

If you want to get a sorted list of all services that are started when FreeBSD boots,
enter "service -e".
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-08-19 17:00:49 UTC

To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl-U".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-18 17:00:08 UTC

2026-08-17 17:00:25 UTC

You can change the video mode on all consoles by adding something like
the following to /etc/rc.conf:
allscreens="80x30"
You can use "vidcontrol -i mode | grep T" for a list of supported text
modes.
-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>

2026-08-16 17:00:52 UTC

In order to support national characters for European languages in tools like
less without creating other nationalisation aspects, set the environment
variable LC_ALL to 'en_US.UTF-8'.

2026-08-15 17:00:11 UTC

Can't remember if you've installed a certain port or not? Try "pkg info
-x port_name".

2026-08-14 17:00:42 UTC

To obtain a neat PostScript rendering of a manual page, use ``-t'' switch
of the man(1) utility: ``man -t <topic>''. For example:
man -t grep > grep.ps # Save the PostScript version to a file
or
man -t printf | lp # Send the PostScript directly to printer

2026-08-13 17:00:43 UTC

Having trouble using fetch through a firewall? Try setting the environment
variable FTP_PASSIVE_MODE to yes, and see fetch(3) for more details.

2026-08-12 17:00:04 UTC

To see the MAC addresses of the NICs on your system, type
ifconfig -a
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-11 17:00:24 UTC

2026-08-10 17:00:53 UTC

To see the output from when your computer started, run dmesg(8). If it has
been replaced with other messages, look at /var/run/dmesg.boot.
-- Francisco Reyes <lists@natserv.com>

2026-08-09 17:00:46 UTC

2026-08-08 17:00:30 UTC

To see the IP addresses currently set on your active interfaces, type
"ifconfig -u".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-07 17:00:36 UTC

Need to remove all those ^M characters from a DOS file? Try
tr -d \\r < dosfile > newfile
-- Originally by Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-06 17:00:19 UTC

To see how long it takes a command to run, type the word "time" before the
command name.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-05 17:00:48 UTC

If you need to ask a question on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list then
https://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/\
freebsd-questions/index.html
contains lots of useful advice to help you get the best results.

2026-08-04 17:00:37 UTC

Need to see which daemons are listening for connection requests? Use
"sockstat -4l" for IPv4, and "sockstat -l" for IPv4 and IPv6.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-08-03 17:00:01 UTC

Any user that is a member of the wheel group can use "su -" to simulate
a root login. You can add a user to the wheel group by editing /etc/group.
-- Konstantinos Konstantinidis <kkonstan@duth.gr>

2026-08-02 17:00:33 UTC

To run rc scripts in /etc/rc.d and /usr/local/etc/rc.d use service(8).
Run "service ${name_of_rc_script} start" to start a daemon and
"service ${name_of_rc_script} stop" to stop it.
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-07-31 17:00:54 UTC

To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use
"zcat" or "zless" to view it. There is also "bzcat", "bzless", "xzcat"
and "xzless".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-07-30 17:00:23 UTC

You can open up a new split-screen window in (n)vi with :N or :E and then
use ^w to switch between the two.

2026-07-29 17:00:24 UTC

To learn more about what your system is doing, take a look at systat(1). For
example, to get various statistics related to virtual memory usage, process
scheduling, device interrupts, system name translation caching, and disk I/O,
enter the following:
systat -vmstat
Other values are icmp, icmp6, ifstat, iostat, ip, ip6, netstat, pigs, sctp,
swap, tcp, or zarc. You can switch between displays using :<display> and exit
back to your shell by typing
:quit
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-07-28 17:00:20 UTC

2026-06-18 17:00:22 UTC

Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's
the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more.
-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>

2026-05-03 17:00:34 UTC

Do you want to run a program directly after some other process has ended? Use
"pwait pid && new_program"
-- Lars Engels <lme@FreeBSD.org>

2026-03-11 18:00:38 UTC

Forget when Easter is? Try "ncal -e". If you need the date for Orthodox
Easter, use "ncal -o" instead.
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-02-07 18:00:12 UTC

To read a compressed file without having to first uncompress it, use
"zcat" or "zless" to view it. There is also "bzcat", "bzless", "xzcat"
and "xzless".
-- Dru <genesis@istar.ca>

2026-01-24 18:00:20 UTC

ZFS keeps a history of commands run against a specific pool using the
history subcommand to zpool:
zpool history
More details are available using the -i and -l parameters. Note that ZFS
will not keep the complete pool history forever and will remove older
events in favor of never ones.
-- Benedict Reuschling <bcr@FreeBSD.org>

2026-01-11 18:00:46 UTC

Ever wonder what those numbers after command names were, as in cat(1)? It's
the section of the manual the man page is in. "man man" will tell you more.
-- David Scheidt <dscheidt@tumbolia.com>