FreeBSD-Specific Resources

This section provides resources on websites, mailing lists, technical lists, and more.

Websites

www.freebsd.org

This is the official website of the FreeBSD project. It is the place to go for news, updates, and information on ports and packages. It is also where the online handbook and various tutorials are located.

www.freebsddiary.org

This site is a goldmine of FAQS and how-to articles on a large number of subjects. It is also the home of some FreeBSD discussion forums.

www.freshports.org

The place to get the latest news regarding new and updated FreeBSD ports, and to subscribe to notifications regarding ports that interest you.

www.freebsdmall.com

The source for purchasing all things FreeBSD. Here, you can get CDs, T-shirts, jackets, mouse pads, coffee mugs, hats, books, and so on. You can also purchase professional support services for FreeBSD here.

Mailing Lists

Mailing lists are places where those in the FreeBSD community can share information and post questions that others subscribed to the list can view and respond to. There are several benefits to being subscribed to the various mailing lists, including being notified of problems with the source tree, security hazards, and so on.

All these mailing lists are official ones moderated by members of the FreeBSD core team and user community. Each one is dedicated to a specific function, such as ports, announcements, the -STABLE branch, and so on. To subscribe to any of the lists, send an email to [e-mail] with the following in the body of the message:

subscribe list-name

list-name is the name of the list you want to subscribe to. You can unsubscribe from any list to which you're subscribed by sending an email to [e-mail] with the following in the body of the message:

unsubscribe list-name

Many of the lists are high volume and will generate a lot of email. To avoid this, you can subscribe to many of the lists in digest form. If you do this, you will only be sent an email from each list you subscribe to when the number of messages posted has exceeded 100KB. All the messages will be sent in a single email.

Caution

If you decide to unsubscribe from a list, make sure you address the message to [e-mail], not to the actual mailing list address. Posting the unsubscribe message to the mailing list instead of to the Majordomo program will have two undesirable effects: First, it won't unsubscribe you. Instead your unsubscribe message will be posted to the list for the whole world to see. Second, it will irritate the list members (most of whom are seasoned UNIX veterans with little patience for newbies). Getting on their bad side isn't much of a way to start your UNIX administration career.

General Lists

Anyone can subscribe to and participate in the general lists. However, you should read the list's guidelines (which will be sent to you when you subscribe) before posting to the list. Here are the general lists, along with a short description of what each one is used for.

The complete set of mailing lists, as well as web-based searchable interfaces to their archives, can be found at http://www.freebsd.org/community/mailinglists.html.

cvs-all

Changes made to the FreeBSD source tree are posted to this list. This is a read-only list, and of interest only to hard-core developers who like reading through mountains of C code.

freebsd-advocacy

A list for discussing the benefits of FreeBSD and different ways of promoting FreeBSD.

freebsd-announce

Important announcements regarding FreeBSD. This is a read-only list that is designed to be low in volume.

freebsd-arch

Discussions regarding system architecture and design.

freebsd-bugbusters

FreeBSD users discussing how the FreeBSD bug database works.

freebsd-bugs

Bug reports for FreeBSD. Note that you should not actually send bug reports to this list. Rather, you should submit a problem report into the bug database using the form located at http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html (or the send-pr program in FreeBSD). Your submitted problem report will then be posted on the list for those subscribed to it to see, as well as be tracked in the database.

freebsd-chat

A general, nontechnical discussion for members of the FreeBSD community.

freebsd-current

If you are tracking the CURRENT branch of FreeBSD, you need to be subscribed to this list. Among other things, reading this list can prevent you from "making world" when the source tree is broken and possibly rendering your system unusable. You should not be tracking CURRENT unless you are technically savvy and are willing to deal with problems like this. This means that you should not post general "how-to" questions to this list. Only technical questions regarding behavior in CURRENT should be posted to this list. For other types of questions, you will either not get a response at all or will likely be told to repost your question in freebsd-questions.

freebsd-isp

A discussion list for Internet service providers using FreeBSD. Note that this list is for providers, not users. In other words, if you are having problems getting FreeBSD to connect to your Internet service provider, this is not the place to post any questions.

freebsd-jobs

If you are a FreeBSD guru looking for a job, you can find job announcements on this list. If you are an employer and need a FreeBSD guru, you can post your "help wanted" ad to this list.

freebsd-policy

This read-only list is for the FreeBSD core team to discuss changes in the development policy for FreeBSD.

freebsd-questions

The place to post technical questions about FreeBSD. If you post a question here, be specific. In other words, don't post a question that says "I can't get pppd to work. What am I doing wrong?" Such a question is not useful at all for troubleshooting, and though it might seem like a good way to send out a distress call, all it tends to do is annoy other list subscribers. To get a useful answer, you will need to provide details, such as the contents of any error messages that are written to the logs, what kind of configuration you are trying to use, relevant sections of configuration files (.conf files), and so on. Also, be polite and don't flame the list if you don't get an answer right away. Remember, the people staffing this list are here on their own time and are all volunteers. Most of them have real jobs and are devoting part of their free time to reading and responding to this list. No one on this list gets paid to help you. Note that you do not need to be subscribed to this list in order to post to it. However, make sure you provide a valid email address so that people have a place to send answers to your questions.

freebsd-security-notifications

This is a list that all FreeBSD users should follow. It's where notifications regarding FreeBSD security holes are posted as soon as they're discovered, as well as instructions for fixing the holes. There is no better way to stay apprised of critical security information than subscribing to this list.

freebsd-stable

This list is for discussions regarding the STABLE source tree. As with CURRENT, if you are tracking STABLE, you need to be subscribed to this list. Although serious problems that can break the distribution and can render a system unbootable are much more rare in STABLE than in CURRENT, they can and do occur. The FreeBSD developers and committers are only human, and like everyone else, they occasionally make mistakes. This list will tell you when there are problems with the tree and also let you know when it is safe to use the tree again. Note that general technical or how-to questions should not be posted to this list. Such questions should be posted to freebsd-questions.

freebsd-test

If you're seized with the urge to send out a message reading "Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3..." this list, not any of the others, is the place to send it. Use this list for making sure that your mail messages are reaching the FreeBSD servers.

Technical Lists

There are many different technical (developers) lists for FreeBSD-related issues, such as porting to different platforms, porting various software to FreeBSD, using FreeBSD in embedded systems, and so on. Because these lists are not of interest to most people, they will not be listed or described here. However, a full list of the technical lists can be obtained at http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/eresources.html.

As the category suggests, these lists are quite technical in nature, and likely to be of interest only to developers. Do not post questions of a general nature to any lists considered "technical lists." Virtually all these lists have guidelines for the way they are to be used.

Therefore, you should read the charter that is emailed to you when subscribing to any of these lists before posting to them.

Caution

The technical lists tend to be primarily only for advanced FreeBSD users. Posting how-to questions and off-topic material to this list will get you no answers at best and will get you flamed at worst.

Usenet Newsgroups for FreeBSD

The following FreeBSD-related newsgroups are available on Usenet (contact your ISP to find out what news server you should be using to access Usenet):

• comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.announce

• comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc

IRC Channels

For users of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), several channels are available for obtaining live FreeBSD help. I'm not going to list all of them here because some of them are general discussion channels in which the topics are rarely about FreeBSD. Here are the two in which you are likely to be able to get assistance from actual FreeBSD users:

• On EFNet: #freebsdhelp

• On Undernet: #freebsd

Tip

You will also find FreeBSD-related channels on the Freenode network, which is particularly popular with open-source programmers. Use http://irc.netsplit.de/ to search for such available channels.

Note that depending on the time of day you show up, these channels might have a lot of people in them and still be very quiet. Though it may look like people are ignoring you, that's probably not the case. Many people are working and are simply logged in to the channel as well. Also, during periods of high network congestion, IRC can have very high lag times between when you post your message and when some people actually get it. Keep this in mind as well when you don't seem to be getting any responses (you might consider switching to a different server if it seems your lag time is very high).

Expect to be treated the way you treat others on IRC. If you are rude because you are not getting answers or are not getting the answers you want, expect people to ignore you or respond rudely to you (a channel operator might ban you from the channel, as well).

Remember, like those on the freebsd-questions mailing list, no one here is paid to help you. People on IRC are helping you on their own free time, so keep that in mind before you get mad at them.