There are a number of directories in which configuration information is kept. These include:
/etc | Generic system-specific configuration information. |
/etc/defaults | Default versions of system configuration files. |
/etc/mail | Extra sendmail(8) configuration and other MTA configuration files. |
/etc/ppp | Configuration for both user- and kernel-ppp programs. |
/etc/namedb | Default location for named(8) data.
Normally named.conf and zone
files are stored here. |
/usr/local/etc | Configuration files for installed applications. May contain per-application subdirectories. |
/usr/local/etc/rc.d | rc(8) scripts for installed applications. |
/var/db | Automatically generated system-specific database files, such as the package database and the locate(1) database. |
How a FreeBSD system accesses the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) is controlled by resolv.conf(5).
The most common entries to
/etc/resolv.conf
are:
nameserver | The IP address of a name server the resolver should query. The servers are queried in the order listed with a maximum of three. |
search | Search list for hostname lookup. This is normally determined by the domain of the local hostname. |
domain | The local domain name. |
A typical /etc/resolv.conf
looks
like this:
Only one of the search
and
domain
options should be used.
When using DHCP, dhclient(8)
usually rewrites /etc/resolv.conf
with information received from the DHCP
server.
/etc/hosts
is a simple text
database which works in conjunction with
DNS and
NIS to provide host name to
IP address mappings. Entries for local
computers connected via a LAN can be
added to this file for simplistic naming purposes instead
of setting up a named(8) server. Additionally,
/etc/hosts
can be used to provide a
local record of Internet names, reducing the need to query
external DNS servers for commonly
accessed names.
The format of /etc/hosts
is as
follows:
For example:
Consult hosts(5) for more information.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at http://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.