BSD vs. Linux
A long discussion of the differences between the BSDen and the Linuxen. Very complete and relatively platform-neutral:
BSD For Linux Users :: Intro
mtree
A real cool command that I had never heard of -
mtree. The basic premise is that if you screw up the permissions and/or ownerships of some folder hierarchy, you can easily restore them. This command:
# mtree -p /usr -U /etc/mtree/BSD.usr.dist
will restore the /usr partitition based upon the original distribution.
Another use is mentioned in the
man page - to prevernt
trojan horses. You can periodically save off new mtree databases, and then compare the tree against its current incarnation. If there are any checksum changes, it will complain.
I'm going to have to look into doing this. It seems like it could be a real butt-saver some times! Those recursive commands, that merrily skip down folder hierarchies, can be very dangerous, esp for someone like me. I know better, but I still do all my work on my server logged in as root - yikes! Looks like a prime candidate to add to one of the
periodic lists.
mtree
FreeBSD Migration Guide
There's a beta version of the
FreeBSD Migration Guide - help for moving from 4.x to 5.x. Take a look and give some comments.
FreeBSD 5.3-BETA Migration Guide
