Bypassing portaudit

If you're stuck building a port even if you're already upgraded using portmanager, set the environment variable DISABLE_VULNERABILITIES:

setenv DISABLE_VULNERABILITIES 1

and start make install clean again. Reference here.

FreeBSD Package management

To search for packages in ports:

make search name="blahblah"

To search packages related to something:

make search key=id

To search for installed packages

pkg_info -ac

To search for a particular package

pkg_info -xc packagename

To list files installed by a package

pkg_info -xL packagename

To check dependencies of a package

pkg_info -R packagename

4-Step FreeBSD essentials for new installs

1. Update the ports tree
pkg_add -r portsnap
portsnap fetch
portsnap extract
portsnap update

2. Install portaudit & portmanager

pkg_add -r portaudit portmanager

3. Run portaudit to check for vulnerabilities:

portaudit -Fda

4. Upgrade the installed packages

portmanager -u

Notes: to use a proxy & save bandwidth:

setenv FTP_PROXY xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:yyyy

To check for outdated packages:

pkg_version -vIL=

or

pkg_version -vIL'<'

Murdering File System

When evaluating file systems, choose the one that doesn't murder your wife.

Tools of the trade dept: Network Monitoring

http://www.zabbix.com/ (++)
http://www.jffnms.org/
http://www.zenoss.com/
http://www.hyperic.com/
http://www.cacti.net/

Tools of the trade dept: wireshark and ratproxy

http://www.wireshark.org/ - network protocol analyzer
http://code.google.com/p/ratproxy/ - semi automated passive security audit tool (that's a mouthful)