Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

10.2 - How do I duplicate a filesystem?
To duplicate your filesystem use 
dump(8)
 and 
restore(8)
. For example, to duplicate everything under 
directory 
SRC
to directory 
DST
, do a: 
# cd /SRC; dump 0f - . | (cd /DST; restore -rf - )
dump is designed to give you plenty of backup capabilities, and it may be an overkill if you just want to 
duplicate a part of a (or an entire) filesystem. The command 
tar(1)
may be faster for this operation. The 
format looks very similar: 
# cd /SRC; tar cf - . | (cd /DST; tar xpf - )
10.3 - How do I start daemons with the system? (Overview of rc
(8))
OpenBSD itself uses an 
rc(8)
 style startup. This uses a few key files for startup. 
●
/etc/rc - Main script. Should not be edited. 
●
/etc/rc.conf - Configuration file used by /etc/rc to set startup parameters for the system. Should not 
be edited. 
●
/etc/rc.conf.local - Configuration file that overrides settings in /etc/rc.conf so you don't have to 
touch /etc/rc.conf itself, which is important when upgrading your system. 
●
/etc/netstart - Script used to initialize the network. Shouldn't be edited. 
●
/etc/rc.local - Script used for local administration. This is where new daemons or host specific 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq10.html (2 of 32)9/4/2011 10:02:15 AM

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10 - System Management
information should be stored. 
●
/etc/rc.securelevel - Script which runs commands that must be run before the security level 
changes. See 
init(8)
●
/etc/rc.shutdown - Script run on shutdown. Put anything you want done before shutdown in this 
file. See 
rc.shutdown(8)
 
How does rc(8) work?
The main files a system administrator should concentrate on are /etc/rc.conf (for guidance), /etc/rc.conf.
local (for changes), /etc/rc.local and /etc/rc.shutdown. To get a look of how the rc(8) procedure works, 
here is the flow: 
After the kernel is booted, /etc/rc is started: 
●
Filesystems are checked. 
●
Default configuration variables are read in from /etc/rc.conf, then local changes to those variables 
are read from /etc/rc.conf.local. Settings in rc.conf.local will override those in rc.conf. 
●
Filesystems are mounted 
●
Clears out /tmp and preserves any editor files 
●
Configures the network via /etc/netstart 
❍
Configures your interfaces up. 
❍
Sets your hostname, domainname, etc. 
●
Starts system daemons 
●
Performs various other checks (quotas, savecore, etc) 
●
Runs /etc/rc.firsttime 
●
Runs /etc/rc.local 
●
Processes the scripts in /etc/rc.d