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Books Operating Systems Media BSD

BSD Hacks 122

Posted by timothy from the but-doesn't-wheeze dept.
GMan00 writes "A flurry of BSD UNIX-related (Berkeley Software Distribution) books have hit the bookstores during the recent past, and more are on the way. From books specific to Secure Architectures with OpenBSD in April 2004 and the reissue of The Design and Implementation of the BSD Operating System for FreeBSD 5.x (expected in August 2004), to Michael Lucas' series of BSD Books from NoStarch Press, print documentation is certainly available for those interested in learning about the free, open source UNIX system which powers operations such as Yahoo! portal and Sendmail.org website, Verio and Pair hosting, not to mention web server survey site Netcraft. Dru Lavigne's BSD Hacks (O'Reilly and Associates, May 2004), is the latest book in these releases, and is an enormously useful resource for system administrators and end-users alike." Read on for the rest of George's review.
BSD Hacks
author Dru Lavigne
pages 427
publisher O'Reilly & Associates
rating 10
reviewer George
ISBN 0596006799
summary A great array of hacks you can perform on your BSD box, many applicable to all the BSDs, including FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Darwin/OS X.

Dru writes the BSD Basics column on O'Reilly & Associates' OnLamp. Her clarity and fluid style are perfect for those looking to understand aspects of the BSD operating systems. I have had some email communications with Dru about various New York City *BSD User Group-related activities, and managed to speak with her several times at BSDCan this past May.

Like most computer nerds, Dru has a sense of humor. Unlike most, however, she's actually funny.

BSD Hacks is the first book that is almost solely focused on hacks for sysadmins, without boring you with the details for basic operating system installation and configuration that has been so well documented elsewhere. BSD Hacks is not just for sysadmins, though. Intermediate and advanced BSD users will also find the book an excellent tool. For those who find difficulty in BSD installs and other fundamentals, on the other hand, it's best to start with the FreeBSD Handbook, the NetBSD Guide or the OpenBSD FAQ.

There's lots of good hacks buried in the various BSD books, around the internet in different HOWTOs and tutorials. But BSD hacking is the sole purpose of BSD Hacks; there's no need to browse through install screens and overviews of TCP/IP before getting to the heart of the matter.

With 100 listed hacks, multiplied by an impressive level of detailed angles for each, Dru provides an array that demands the placement of this book right in your server room, not in a pile of "must-read-at-some-distant-point-in-the-future" texts.

The majority of hacks are applicable to all the BSDs, including Darwin and OS X, although some are specific to one BSD or another.

This review obviously can't list every hack, although you would be smart to sit and work through the book yourself over a weekend or two. But it is possible to provide a good flavor of BSD Hacks in brief. O'Reilly and Associates does give a good glimpse on their Sample Hacks page, but let's do a quick work through ourselves.

The first chapter is called "Customizing the User Environment," and is probably best for end-users looking to go beyond their first steps. But it does include some useful hacks, such as "Use an Interactive Shell" that certainly fit well into the arsenal of any sysadmin, not to mention Hack #12 "Use Multiple Screens on One Terminal."

The second chapter, "Dealing with Files and Filesystems" also contains gems for both end-users and sysadmins. The use of mtree, which maps a directory hierarchy, is mentioned as a tool for recovery. Later on in chapter 6, Dru details its use for making a hacked data integrity checker, thus filling the role often played by products such as Tripwire.

Another great tool Dru covers in the second chapter is g4u, a free ghosting program that gives you the ability to perform quick restores over ftp. Ghosting a drive image is an incredibly useful tool, whether it's about replicating servers or doing a quick reinstall and configuration when a server fails in an emergency.

Chapter 3 is entitled "Boot and Login Environments." It gives some hacks that aren't just for basic system administration, but also some useful security ones including changing your /etc/passwd file to Blowfish encryption and utilizing OPIE for one-time passwords, which is built into FreeBSD.

"Backup Up" is the focus of Chapter 4. It includes some very creative methods of dealing with maintaining that necessity, and also includes an excellent primer on Bacula, which is increasingly gaining prominence as a cross-platform backup system.

Chapter 5 covers "Network Hacks," and continues on educating a sysadmin. Included in this chapter is the tcpdump program, a vital tool for watching traffic flowing by your network interfaces.

There's a strong security focus in Chapter 6, entitled "Securing the System." While security hacks are sprinkled generously throughout the book, this chapter works with firewalling with IPF and PF, in addition to covering SSH and Snort. It also includes the earlier mentioned 'intrusion detection-lite' approach with mtree.

Chapter 7, "Going Beyond the Basics" explores scripting, analyzing dreaded buffer overflows and more. Dru also includes a bit on "Creating a Trade Show Demo," not something you'd expect documented in print anywhere, but nevertheless quite useful for anyone working for the BSDs at a conference.

Dru continues with "Keeping Up-to-Date" in Chapter 8, which includes useful details on upgrading and downgrading your installed ports.

The final chapter is "Grokking BSD." "Grok," as Dru comments, refers to the science fiction writer Heinlein's Martian phrase for having a "thorough understanding." Dru covers creating your own manual pages, dealing with custom patches, playing with dictionaries and more.

Certainly there are no walls between each chapter, as many of the hacks could be shifted around. All the more reason to work your way through the book from beginning to end.

One useful addition for this book could have been somehow denoting which of the BSDs (in some cases, it's all of them) to which each listed hack can be applied. Certainly not all are available to Darwin and Apple's OS X. And certainly there's no point in making the OpenBSD /etc/passwd file encrypted in Blowfish, since that is its default.

While many of the hacks are found somewhere in the manual pages, on some useful website, buried in another book or in the minds of some developer somewhere, they're not necessarily in the annals of official documentation. But there's no single book or site that provides the depth and breadth that Dru provides. She managed to tap into the thoughts of dozens of developers and sysadmins around the world, greatly enhancing the variety of hacks in this book.

As a side note, the scope of BSD Hacks isn't limited to just the BSD family. Many of these are likely applicable to Linux and the other UNIX systems. But with recent, impressive increases in the BSD install base, there's a good chance that you can access a BSD box somewhere.

Whether you're a sysadmin managing hundreds of servers, or a power user ready to go beyond the obvious, BSD Hacks belongs next to your CRT.

You can purchase BSD Hacks from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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  • Recent Past (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:26PM (#9814841)
    From the write-up "have hit the bookstores during the recent past"

    Yes, those are much easier to review than those that arrive in the recent future.

    FYI, the word you are looking for is "recently".

    HTH

  • Oh my! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    *BSD is... ALIVE!

  • 10 replies and all of them at -1 (Score:5, Funny)

    by GillBates0 ( 664202 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:30PM (#9814887) Homepage Journal
    What can you expect when the article summary contains references to both Netcraft and BSD.

    I can hear the sound of a million BSD-is-dying trolls banging on their keyboards.

  • Legitimate question. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by lpangelrob2 ( 721920 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:32PM (#9814904) Journal
    Is a hacks book a good way to go about learning more about the insides of an OS (BSD) and how it works, or are there other books out there for this purpose? I know elementary UNIX (if you count Terminal OS X as UNIX) but I'm not sure if books like this are a good way to broaden the scope of what I know in the language, or just specific directions and instructions on how to get some things power users have always wanted to work... to work.

    • Re:Legitimate question. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Unnngh! ( 731758 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:40PM (#9814985)
      I've found books help to take me over certain hurdles in learning, particularly with unix. That being said, I kindof need to hit a hurdle for them to be useful, or at least have enough real experience under my belt to see how the material is applicable. Unix Power Tools is a great book, it will show you so many nuts and bolts of any Unix-like OS that it will really put you in another realm. But try picking it up as a noob, it'll only give you a massive headache.
    • i always found tutorials to be very helpful in learning things, because they provide examples.
      however, using the thing daily is (for me) the best way to learn it

    • Re:Legitimate question. (Score:5, Informative)

      by Short Circuit ( 52384 ) <mikemol@gmail.com> on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:46PM (#9815051) Homepage Journal
      For me, O'Reilley's Linux in a Nutshell [oreilly.com] allowed me to charge in with both guns drawn back in 2000. (Read: I'd hosed my Windows installation, and the Compaq restore CD wasn't working.)

      They have books on both Linux and BSD here [oreilly.com]. And, so long as you have a machine to read them from, check out their Safari service. I loved it. (but had to cancel to pay for tuition last Fall. I'm still planning on going back.)
      • check out their Safari service. I loved it. (but had to cancel to pay for tuition last Fall. I'm still planning on going back.)

        Good Lord! How much does it cost?!
        • $15/month for the one I subscribed too. There are cheaper and more expensive options, though. It depends on how many books you want access to at one time. (Keep in mind that there's a minimum time you can have a single book checked out.)
    • I have read The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System [awprofessional.com] and it is a very good way to learn the inner workings of an OS. This is an older book than the one mentioned in the article and I'm sure the new book has some more up to date information. But I would expect it to be just as good as the one I mentioned.

      The authors of the book helped in writing BSD and they give the impression of knowing what they are writing about.

    • Re:Legitimate question. (Score:4, Informative)

      by joeykiller ( 119489 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @03:14PM (#9815326) Journal
      Is a hacks book a good way to go about learning more about the insides of an OS (BSD) and how it works, or are there other books out there for this purpose?
      I haven't read "BSD Hacks", but I have read O'Reilly's "Linux hacks". If BSD Hacks is anything like the O'Reilly book "Linux hacks", I'd have to say that the answer is no.

      Don't misunderstand -- "Linux hacks" is an awesome book, but it is a book that helps users that have some experience solve a couple of (or more like 100) special problems you really have to experience before you even know they exist. I don't know if this makes any sense, but what I'm trying to say is that it may be more suited for experienced users.

      Since you seem to be an OS X user I think you'd get more help from another O'Reilly book: Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther [oreilly.com]. It teaches you the basics and might even get you far enough to experience the kind of situations where you'd start wanting a Hacks book.

    • The FreedBSD Handbook (which you can download or read here [freebsd.org] probably contains everything you need, and then some.

      Reading more than one book on any subject is always a good idea, but when you're starting off, the original documentation (in this case, excellent and well written) should not to be skipped.

    • Re:Legitimate question. (Score:4, Informative)

      by chromatic ( 9471 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @05:26PM (#9816542) Homepage

      The goal of a Hacks book is much different from a Cookbook. A Cookbook will cover everything common you'll eventually want to do. A Hack will cover things you may never have known you want to do, but will want to do after you read them.

      (I edited this book, so that was my goal at least.)

  • Awesome hack. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Eric_Cartman_South_P ( 594330 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:35PM (#9814940)
    Here's a really cool hack... it's one of my favorite:

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/ [apple.com]

  • Secure architectures (Score:5, Informative)

    by carnivore302 ( 708545 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:40PM (#9814983) Journal
    I happen to own Secure Architectures with openBSD [amazon.com]. While it covers a lot of ground found in other admin books as well, there are some nice things to be found here. Especially the comments on how-not-to-do-it were sometimes... well let's say useful :-)

    Click on the Mystery Futures Link [tradesims.com]!

  • Alive and well (Score:5, Insightful)

    by shaitand ( 626655 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:46PM (#9815050) Journal
    It's good to see BSD getting some well deserved recognition.

    Although BSD isn't commonly seen as an end platform in practice (with some notable exceptions), the code and technology in it are probably used in favorite OS no matter what OS that is.

    So for once guys, be you linux fans, windows fans, or OS X fans, tip your hats. We should all be encouraging the growth and development of BSD.

  • About BSD-Hacks (Score:5, Interesting)

    by koinu ( 472851 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:48PM (#9815079)

    There is no question. This book is useful and one of the best books that I've seen for a long time.

    I'm using FreeBSD 4 and 5. That's why I like this book really much. It gives so many examples how to cope with shell settings, file systems, backups and many other typical problems. I have learned a lot from this book.

    This here, is not the whole truth:

    The majority of hacks are applicable to all the BSDs, including Darwin and OS X, although some are specific to one BSD or another.

    While reading this book you will find quite a lot passages saying: "For NetBSD, look at: http://...", "For OpenBSD, try: http://...", "Unfortunatelly, NetBSD..." or explaining NetBSD/OpenBSD features in one short paragraph and pointing to man-pages, while FreeBSD is explained with lots of details. I mean, this does not disturb me, but it might be annoying for other users.

  • *BSD as a Four Letter Word (Score:5, Insightful)

    by karniv0re ( 746499 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @02:50PM (#9815094) Journal
    What is it with the "Slashdot Scene" that the mere mention of *BSD invokes insults from every corner. I can see this coming from the Microsoft crowd, but from FOSS advocates?

    Come on people, it's not like you pay for it! It's just as free as Linux! Each serve their purpose. Now, if you can't say anything positive, don't say anything at all.
    • Actually, browsing at the civilized levels, I've noticed far more people complaining about BSD being insulted than actual anti-BSD sentiment. Either you guys take the trolls more seriously than I do, or you have a minority complex. :P
    • I don't get it either.

      It truly boggles my mind. What's the problem? Does it upset the trolls so that another free unix-like operating system exists? Deal with it. You don't have to use it.

      Whatever. My real beef (as stated in my post somewhere below) is that we get the same tired cut and paste trolls, which waste my time with screens full of crap when I want to peruse the comments.

      I am curious though... how many of the trolls have actually worked with a *BSD system? More to the point have any of the

    • Re:*BSD as a Four Letter Word (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      WTF are you talking about? The insults you see aren't from FOSS advocates they are from jackass Trolls who have nothing to do with OSS. I've read through every -1 post here and none of them are posts from known Linux users saying that standard BSD sucks and Linux is bettter. Your further comment about how its "just as Free Linux" are wasted on people who have NOTHING to do with Linux and are just here to act like jackasses.

      Your obviously new here so I'll cut you some slack but don't make the same mistake a
      • Quoth the AC:
        "The insults you see aren't from FOSS advocates they are from jackass Trolls who have nothing to do with OSS."

        I'll buy that. Most real live IT workers (sysadmin and dev) that I know and work with are very pragmatic about their open source. I think the Perl folk sum it up quite nicely: 'There's more than one way to do it.'

        "... none of them are posts from known Linux users saying that standard BSD sucks and Linux is [sic] bettter."

        Well, I wouldn't go that far, look back at the comparison pos
      • No, I'm not new here, I know how this shit works. And you know there are exceptions to every rule. My reference was mostly made to the comparison people, and the ones who love to pretend that they're in a gang because they use a certain OS.

        If you read through every -1 post, then you'd probably also notice that they're all Anonymous Cowards, much like yourself. So your point that none of them are known Linux users is moot.

        Finally, I will agree, whoever mods me as insightful, does indeed need to have thems
  • I see someone is still taking up arms in the "hack vs. crack" nomeclature war. I thought we had surrendered.

  • Informative review (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bastardadmin ( 660086 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @03:13PM (#9815321) Journal
    Documentation is a good thing.
    Good documentation is considerably better.

    It's good to see that the market is there for decent, affordable reference works for more than just Linux and Windows (though the latter is debatable... and that's not trolling, I have been a Windows admin for years and the thing that keeps me running Linux and *BSD baxes in my environments is that, as a rule, the documentation is a hell of a lot more affordable and accessible and generally better).

    It is a shame that any BSD story on slashdot has to be inundated with the same tired "BSD is dead" trolls. Not that I am surprised to see trolling here, but get some creativity FFS (and that doesn't mean Fast Filesystem in this context).
    You aren't even worth the mod points to flag you for what you really are, you sad, friendless twits.

  • Unix Power Tools (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TilJ ( 7607 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @03:18PM (#9815370) Homepage
    This book (which I picked up in a recent book shopping binge) reminds me most of Unix Power Tools. I own the 2nd edition and I've reviewed [rospa.ca] the 3rd edition. The similarities to the "Hacks" series is striking (not surprising, considering that they're both published by O'Reilly). The "Hacks" books seem to be shorter and with fewer tips receiving more thorough treatment.

    A comment I wrote for the Power Tools review applies to BSD Hacks as well:

    Among the most hyperlinked book I've seen, this book is filled with hundreds of useful tips and, perhaps most interestingly, Unix culture. It's only marginally successful as a reference manual or as a teaching aid as it focuses on the useful-but-obscure aspects of Unix. Where it truly excels is in steeping the reader in ``How do I''-style Unix lore until it comes out of their pores.

    • Unix Power Tools was definitely an inspiration for the Hacks series. Fortunately, the Hacks are a lot shorter, a lot more focused, a lot less expensive, and very much easier to write.

  • My good friend Michael Vince had two of his scripts included in the BSD Hacks book, including Quickpatch [roq.com] which was also featured as a sample chapter [oreilly.com]

    His projects website is here at ROQ.COM [roq.com] and also has the very useful IPFilter script [roq.com].

    As an aside, he said that in his bio in the book, OReilly credited him with different hacks than the ones he actually wrote... editorial snafu.

  • Another view on "BSD Hacks" (Score:5, Interesting)

    by hubertf ( 124995 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @04:59PM (#9816330) Homepage Journal
    Being a long term NetBSD user, I'm not too thrilled by the mixture of contents in the book. See my NetBSD blog entry [feyrer.de] for a few more details.

    - Hubert

  • Secure Architectures with OpenBSD (Score:4, Informative)

    by zyche ( 784345 ) on Tuesday July 27, 2004 @05:10PM (#9816418)

    I bought a copy of Secure Architectures with OpenBSD [amazon.com] and I think it is quite good, especially if you consider its relatively low price.

    It's not that it cover every detail of every feature of OpenBSD, rather it many gives some background to them that the (ohh so excellent) man pages doesn't provide. For example: while the man page explain what rarpd does, the book admits that the service is quite archaic. :-)

    I like it, and have learned a lot from it, even then I thought I knew most of it (or know where to look).

  • From the samples, it doesn't look good at all... It was written by someone with rather limited knowledge, who doesn't really like to do things the right way.

    For instance, hack 100 tells you to copy the ~/.Xauthority file from user "dru" to root's home, then set DISPLAY. This is so root can display an X11 window...

    The right way to do this is to:
    A) use "xhost" as "dru". Specifically, "xhost +local:root" will give root access to the X server. If you're root, it's easy to su to dru, run xhost, then exit

  • Does it cover DragonFly BSD? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do any of these new books cover DragonFly BSD? I'm in the process of switching all my computers over from FreeBSD to DragonFly. It would sure be nice to have some DragonFly books.
  • Anyone know of any good literature out there on *BSD written as such that it is geared towards experienced Linux sysadmins? i.e. offering a list of key differences (or similarities) on various levels of system organization, administration, common/best community practicies etc.?

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