FreeBSD is a free, open-source and UNIX-like operating system. Though relatively unknown, it’s a performing and powerful work-horse, capable of coping with massive work-loads whilest remaining fast, ultra-stable and rock-solid. Blogging about FreeBSD and operating systems based on this versatile, safe and secure OS, I want to generate more interest in FreeBSD and its dependants. If you need a reliable, rock-solid and performing system for either your desktop or servers, consider FreeBSD!
Learn FreeNAS has a post with the top10 reasons why FreeNAS should be considered when setting up Network Attached Storage:
It worksFind out about the details on LearnFreeNAS
Read the whole issue here.
The foundation is still way away from their donation target. To support FreeBSD and the FreeBSD Foundation, why not make a donation on their website? If you ever decide to support my website, 10% of your donation will be given to the Foundation.
Since recent times, the Foundation have their own blog and twitter account.
The FreeBSD Security Team has issued the following security warning:
FreeBSD-SA-09:12.bind – BIND named(8) dynamic update message remote DoS
For background info, problem description, impact, workaround and solution, have a look at the advisory page: bind
These are the final BSD usage numbers for June 2009 from BSDstats.org showing the use of *BSD operating systems:
Note, these numbers aren’t in any way a true representation of the use of BSD systems. PC-BSD and DesktopBSD have the BSDStats port installed by default (which can be turned off), whereas on other BSD systems the scrip has to be manually installed
Many thanks to Igor (Abaza) for reminding me about the bsdstats numbers.
Bruno put together a useful tutorial for setting up RANCID on FreeBSD:
RANCID is an application that allows you to track changes to network devices using a CVS tree. It will email you any changes made at scheduled intervals. You can read more about it here.
I’m going to implement RANCID on a FreeBSD box at work to track changes to my Cisco network devices. I’ve tested these directions on FreeBSD 6.3 and 7.2 and they should work on FreeBSD in general.
From the RANCID website:
RANCID monitors a router’s (or more generally a device’s) configuration, including software and hardware (cards, serial numbers, etc) and uses CVS (Concurrent Version System) or Subversion to maintain history of changes.
RANCID does this by the very simple process summarized here:
- login to each device in the router table (router.db),
- run various commands to get the information that will be saved,
- cook the output; re-format, remove oscillating or incrementing data,
- email any differences (sample) from the previous collection to a mail list,
- and finally commit those changes to the revision control system
RANCID also includes looking glass software. It is based on Ed Kern’s looking glass which was once used for http://nitrous.digex.net/, for the old-school folks who remember it. Our version has added functions, supports cisco, juniper, and foundry and uses the login scripts that come with rancid; so it can use telnet or ssh to connect to your devices(s).Rancid currently supports Cisco routers, Juniper routers, Catalyst switches, Foundry switches, Redback NASs, ADC EZT3 muxes, MRTd (and thus likely IRRd), Alteon switches, and HP Procurve switches and a host of others.
Thanks Bruno for letting me know about your post.
Murray Stokely has released the FreeBSD Release Engineering paper detailing the different phases of the release engineering process leading up to the actual system build as well as the actual build process and very important discussion on the future directions of development:
This paper describes the approach used by the FreeBSD release engineering team to make production quality releases of the FreeBSD Operating System. It details the methodology used for the official FreeBSD releases and describes the tools available for those interested in producing customized FreeBSD releases for corporate rollouts or commercial productization.
The development of FreeBSD is a very open process. FreeBSD is comprised of contributions from thousands of people around the world. The FreeBSD Project provides anonymous CVS[1] access to the general public so that others can have access to log messages, diffs (patches) between development branches, and other productivity enhancements that formal source code management provides. This has been a huge help in attracting more talented developers to FreeBSD. However, I think everyone would agree that chaos would soon manifest if write access was opened up to everyone on the Internet. Therefore only a “select” group of nearly 300 people are given write access to the CVS repository. These committers[5] are responsible for the bulk of FreeBSD development. An elected core-team[6] of very senior developers provides some level of direction over the project.
The rapid pace of FreeBSD development leaves little time for polishing the development system into a production quality release. To solve this dilemma, development continues on two parallel tracks. The main development branch is the HEAD or trunk of our CVS tree, known as “FreeBSD-CURRENT” or “-CURRENT” for short.
A more stable branch is maintained, known as “FreeBSD-STABLE” or “-STABLE” for short. Both branches live in a master CVS repository in California and are replicated via CVSup[2] to mirrors all over the world. FreeBSD-CURRENT[7] is the “bleeding-edge” of FreeBSD development where all new changes first enter the system. FreeBSD-STABLE is the development branch from which major releases are made. Changes go into this branch at a different pace, and with the general assumption that they have first gone into FreeBSD-CURRENT and have been thoroughly tested by our user community.
In the interim period between releases, monthly snapshots are built automatically by the FreeBSD Project build machines and made available for download fromftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/. The widespread availability of binary release snapshots, and the tendency of our user community to keep up with -STABLE development with CVSup and “make world”[7] helps to keep FreeBSD-STABLE in a very reliable condition even before the quality assurance activities ramp up pending a major release.
Sun VirtualBox has been in the FreeBSD ports for a few weeks now. The FreeBSD Handbook has been updated to include VirtualBox on FreeBSD as host OS.
I’m sure this is written tongue-in-cheek, though there may be some truth in it here and there:
How many FreeBSD hackers does it take to change a lightbulb?
One thousand, one hundred and seventy-two:
Twenty-three to complain to -current about the lights being out;
Four to claim that it is a configuration problem, and that such matters really belong on -questions;
Three to submit PRs about it, one of which is misfiled under doc and consists only of “it’s dark”;
One to commit an untested lightbulb which breaks buildworld, then back it out five minutes later;
Eight to flame the PR originators for not including patches in their PRs;
Five to complain about buildworld being broken;
Thirty-one to answer that it works for them, and they must have cvsupped at a bad time;
One to post a patch for a new lightbulb to -hackers;
One to complain that he had patches for this three years ago, but when he sent them to -current they were just ignored, and he has had bad experiences with the PR system; besides, the proposed new lightbulb is non-reflexive;
Continues (blog.tusoffka.org)
The BSD Magazine is to stay, well, that is, for the forseable future.
Karolina, editor of BSD Magazine, has confirmed that the BSD Magazine will continue to be published.
Please spread the word, buy an issue or subscribe to support the magazine.
Emmanuel Silvério Francisco has translated the FreeBSD Handbook into Brazilian Portugese.
The PDF can be downloaded here
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