There are a number of directories in which configuration information is kept. These include:
/etc | Generic system configuration information; data here is system-specific. |
/etc/defaults | Default versions of system configuration files. |
/etc/mail | Extra sendmail(8) configuration, other MTA configuration files. |
/etc/ppp | Configuration for both user- and kernel-ppp programs. |
/etc/namedb | Default location for named(8) data. Normally
named.conf and zone files are stored
here. |
/usr/local/etc | Configuration files for installed applications. May contain per-application subdirectories. |
/usr/local/etc/rc.d | Start/stop scripts for installed applications. |
/var/db | Automatically generated system-specific database files, such as the package database, the locate database, and so on |
/etc/resolv.conf
dictates how FreeBSD's
resolver accesses the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).
The most common entries to resolv.conf
are:
nameserver | The IP address of a name server the resolver should query. The servers are queried in the order listed with a maximum of three. |
search | Search list for hostname lookup. This is normally determined by the domain of the local hostname. |
domain | The local domain name. |
A typical resolv.conf
:
search example.com nameserver 147.11.1.11 nameserver 147.11.100.30
Only one of the search
and
domain
options should be used.
If you are using DHCP, dhclient(8) usually rewrites
resolv.conf
with information received from the
DHCP server.
/etc/hosts
is a simple text
database reminiscent of the old Internet. It works in
conjunction with DNS and NIS providing name to IP address
mappings. Local computers connected via a LAN can be placed
in here for simplistic naming purposes instead of setting up
a named(8) server. Additionally,
/etc/hosts
can be used to provide a
local record of Internet names, reducing the need to query
externally for commonly accessed names.
# $FreeBSD$ # # Host Database # This file should contain the addresses and aliases # for local hosts that share this file. # In the presence of the domain name service or NIS, this file may # not be consulted at all; see /etc/nsswitch.conf for the resolution order. # # ::1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain 127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.my.domain myname.my.domain # # Imaginary network. #10.0.0.2 myname.my.domain myname #10.0.0.3 myfriend.my.domain myfriend # # According to RFC 1918, you can use the following IP networks for # private nets which will never be connected to the Internet: # # 10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.255 # 172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255 # 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 # # In case you want to be able to connect to the Internet, you need # real official assigned numbers. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not try # to invent your own network numbers but instead get one from your # network provider (if any) or from the Internet Registry (ftp to # rs.internic.net, directory `/templates'). #
/etc/hosts
takes on the simple format
of:
[Internet address] [official hostname] [alias1] [alias2] ...
For example:
10.0.0.1 myRealHostname.example.com myRealHostname foobar1 foobar2
Consult hosts(5) for more information.
syslog.conf
is the configuration file
for the syslogd(8) program. It indicates which types
of syslog
messages are logged to particular
log files.
# $FreeBSD$ # # Spaces ARE valid field separators in this file. However, # other *nix-like systems still insist on using tabs as field # separators. If you are sharing this file between systems, you # may want to use only tabs as field separators here. # Consult the syslog.conf(5) manual page. *.err;kern.debug;auth.notice;mail.crit /dev/console *.notice;kern.debug;lpr.info;mail.crit;news.err /var/log/messages security.* /var/log/security mail.info /var/log/maillog lpr.info /var/log/lpd-errs cron.* /var/log/cron *.err root *.notice;news.err root *.alert root *.emerg * # uncomment this to log all writes to /dev/console to /var/log/console.log #console.info /var/log/console.log # uncomment this to enable logging of all log messages to /var/log/all.log #*.* /var/log/all.log # uncomment this to enable logging to a remote log host named loghost #*.* @loghost # uncomment these if you're running inn # news.crit /var/log/news/news.crit # news.err /var/log/news/news.err # news.notice /var/log/news/news.notice !startslip *.* /var/log/slip.log !ppp *.* /var/log/ppp.log
Consult the syslog.conf(5) manual page for more information.
newsyslog.conf
is the configuration
file for newsyslog(8), a program that is normally scheduled
to run by cron(8). newsyslog(8) determines when log
files require archiving or rearranging.
logfile
is moved to
logfile.0
, logfile.0
is moved to logfile.1
, and so on.
Alternatively, the log files may be archived in gzip(1) format
causing them to be named: logfile.0.gz
,
logfile.1.gz
, and so on.
newsyslog.conf
indicates which log
files are to be managed, how many are to be kept, and when
they are to be touched. Log files can be rearranged and/or
archived when they have either reached a certain size, or at a
certain periodic time/date.
# configuration file for newsyslog # $FreeBSD$ # # filename [owner:group] mode count size when [ZB] [/pid_file] [sig_num] /var/log/cron 600 3 100 * Z /var/log/amd.log 644 7 100 * Z /var/log/kerberos.log 644 7 100 * Z /var/log/lpd-errs 644 7 100 * Z /var/log/maillog 644 7 * @T00 Z /var/log/sendmail.st 644 10 * 168 B /var/log/messages 644 5 100 * Z /var/log/all.log 600 7 * @T00 Z /var/log/slip.log 600 3 100 * Z /var/log/ppp.log 600 3 100 * Z /var/log/security 600 10 100 * Z /var/log/wtmp 644 3 * @01T05 B /var/log/daily.log 640 7 * @T00 Z /var/log/weekly.log 640 5 1 $W6D0 Z /var/log/monthly.log 640 12 * $M1D0 Z /var/log/console.log 640 5 100 * Z
Consult the newsyslog(8) manual page for more information.
sysctl.conf
looks much like
rc.conf
. Values are set in a
variable=value
form. The specified values are set after the system goes into
multi-user mode. Not all variables are settable in this mode.
A sample sysctl.conf
turning off logging
of fatal signal exits and letting Linux programs know they are really
running under FreeBSD:
kern.logsigexit=0 # Do not log fatal signal exits (e.g. sig 11) compat.linux.osname=FreeBSD compat.linux.osrelease=4.3-STABLE
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.