On 05/07, David Lou wrote:
I wasn't able to find such a thing but perhaps I just missed it. I
am wondering if anyone in the community knows whether such manuals
exist for OpenBSD. Manpages are nice but they're not what I'm looking
for. Trying to learn OpenBSD by looking up individual manpages is like
trying to learn C programming by looking up individual functions. Sure
you get a description of the functions but you will NOT get all the
background information like C syntax, semantics, memory model,
pointers, the whole shebang that every beginner *should* know, but
don't have the background knowledge to know that they should be
looking these up in manpages or elsewhere.
I'd like to acquire confident working knowledge in OpenBSD. If no
such manuals exist, then I'm wondering how did you or other expert
users learn how to use and administrate the system, what the best
programming practices are, etc. and have confidence that what they're
doing is what they think they're doing? Surely it's not just by
trial and error and seeing what appears to work because their
ignorance will be a frustrating source of bugs and security flaws?
Besides the FAQ, the Absolute OpenBSD book is good as well:
https://www.michaelwlucas.com/nonfiction/absolute-openbsd-2nd-edition
But you sell the OpenBSD manpages short. As a beginner
myself, I noticed that virtually every question I have can be answered
with either the FAQ, or the man-pages.
The man-pages in OpenBSD are much more comprehensive *and* cohesive
then on Linux. Start with help(1) and afterboot(8), then intro(1..9).
From there follow all the links it gives you, and you'll have a very good
overview of your system. The man-pages not just explain command-line
switches, they also explain the how, with working examples, and why of
commands, system calls, the c-library etc.
Have fun, Alex
