Building Monolithic Kernels and Root Filesystems for FreeBSD
by David Yeske

This article explains an alternative method of creating a kernel that contains a root file system image within it. This single-file kernel and file system can be used in many ways beyond what usual FreeBSD kernels allow, just as having the root file system loaded along with the kernel enables you to have more flexibility in the boot process. Read More

Filtering Bridge with IPFilter on FreeBSD
by Armijn Hemel

A bridge connects two network segments and makes it look like it's one network. So basically you're copying packets from one interface to another. And why not put a filter in between and create a filtering bridge? A filtering bridge makes it possible to filter packets without a change to the network setup, apart from rewiring some cables. Read More

Cross-Development with NetBSD
by Hubert Feyrer

When targeting a product for an embedded platform, it's not feasible to have all the development tools available on that same platform. Instead, some method of cross-compiling is usually used today. NetBSD 1.6 will contain (and NetBSD-current has today) a new framework to build both the operating system's kernel and the whole userland for either the same platform that the compiler runs on, or for a different platform, using cross-compiling. Read More

Trawling the Ports Collection
by Greg Lehey

Grog puts down the Coopers and reels in information about rsync, the best cp around. rsync is a program designed to keep identical copies of files on different machines and to optimize network bandwidth while doing so. It's in the Ports Collection in net/rsync. Read More

Answerman
by Todd Whitesel

In this month's Answerman, we have a pack of answers to the last mailbag question, and a pack of new mailbag questions... and a stack of little new questions in between. Read More

This Month in BSD
by Sam Smith

Sam Smith outlines the events and product releases related to BSD, Darwin, Mac OS X and Open Source that occurred in the past month. Read More

Daemon's Advocate
by Wes Peters

The advocate discusses telecommuting, telementoring, and the future of Western society. Read More