Thursday, February 10, 2011

Some threads can be very educational

Like this one I posted to the FreeBSD forums.
While it didn't entirely explain the "weird" experience I had, it did teach me quite a lot; such as:

1. /etc/defaults/rc.conf runs a whole bunch of defaults that run on boot UNLESS contradicted by what's in /etc/rc.conf. I didn't know about the /etc/defaults/ stuff at all up to now

2. background_fsck is automatically enabled and runs "whenever possible" on every boot

3. Here's a useful command which outputs the number of lines in a file

wc -l "file name and path" (without quotes)


4.Another useful command which seeks all instances of something in a file
less -i +/"whatever you're looking for" "file name and path" (without quotes)
(all without quotes)
A real example is propbaly clearer. I was looking for all occurrences of the term "fsck" in the file /etc/defaults/rc.conf which I was easily able to find with
less -i +/fsck /etc/defaul;ts/rc.conf

However, I believe the grep function gives a cleaner and easier-to-remember solution
cat /etc/defaults/rc.conf | grep fsck

I wish all threads were as educational

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