View Single Post
Old 16th March 2014
ibara ibara is offline
OpenBSD language porter
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 783
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
I too am relatively new here

1. Read "afterbook" or equivalent should be mentioned in post install or mail.,
afterboot(8)
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
2. get ports tree and pkg_add nano if you are a vi person (easy editor)
You don't need the ports tree if you're going to use packages. Please use packages, especially if you are running release (which you probably should be if you're new).

I would also say that while nano (or I'll throw out ee here, since I maintain that) and other "easy" editors can make for useful crutches for the very new, you really should learn vi and/or emacs. Why? vi and emacs are the two "standard" editor types on Unix, and you cannot rely on a foreign machine having the "easy" editor you're used to. However, you can expect a vi or emacs (usually both, but almost certainly vi) on foreign machines. Fortunately, OpenBSD has vi(1) (in the form of nvi) and mg(1) (a lightweight emacs clone) in base. Start learning one of those two as soon as you begin to have the slightest bit of comfort with the command line. Learn one as a daily editor and the other enough to be useful with it (navigating, writing/editing text, search/replace, save, quit). You can always graduate to vim (pkg_add vim) or emacs (pkg_add emacs) later.

You are going to spend a lot of time in a text editor so it is in your best interest to take this very seriously and very early on in your Unix career. FWIW, I am a vi user but I am more than comfortable using emacs. I even maintain a really tiny (28K binary size) emacs clone for an OS called RetroBSD. (https://github.com/ibara/emg for the interested)
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
3. you can goto /usr/port/ and use make search key=softwarewanted command
to search for software once you down load the ports tree.
pkg_info -Q packagename
pkg_info(1)
No ports tree required. Please use packages, especially if you are running release (which you probably should be if you're new).
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
7. u can use packet filtering ie. pf.conf to protect your machine and get traffic
info even if you are behind a firewall or router.
BSD Now (http://www.bsdnow.tv/) has some useful stuff for people new to pf (http://www.bsdnow.tv/tutorials/pf). There's also The Book of PF if you get really into firewalls. Also a great resource to have for anyone using pf.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
8. use man, info, and apropos to find stuff
man(1)
info(1)
apropos(1)
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
11. I do install x sometimes for testing the likes of XFCE4 but in general am happy
with the terminal (SSH) for my server maint, and file movements and editing.
Since you mentioned ports a few times I'll say it. If you ever want to work with ports you MUST have all the xsets installed. They're offered to you by default at install time so just install them. You're not going to be in an environment where having X installed is a problem. And if you are, you'll already know.
Quote:
Originally Posted by frcc View Post
12. OpenBSD default install has ssh client and server you can find their config files
in /etc/ssh/
I would certainly hope so, as OpenSSH is an OpenBSD project.
This should be echoed as often as possible because not enough people know it. If you've ever typed/used ssh on any OS then you rely on OpenBSD.


And let me also voice support for the suggestions given by others already in this thread, such as J65nko, ocicat, and jggimi. And apologies in advance if this gets broken off into another topic. Sorry to make you admins do extra work.
Reply With Quote