The cover notes declare that this book is “Your complete guide to BSD.” That’s not quite true: in the introduction, the author more accurately observes that his book is for those who wish to build, configure, and manage FreeBSD servers. This is a shame for those who might wish to use FreeBSD for desktop applications: they get a mere 16 pages in the final chapter.

Michael Lucas, a FreeBSD developer, is well equipped to write a book of this type. In the first few pages, he comments that many computer books are “thick enough to stun an ox.” He elaborates on this comment to indicate that this book (at over 600 pages) is not in that category.

The book’s introduction includes a well-balanced report on the genesis of FreeBSD and its close relatives. A greater emphasis on the license differences between FreeBSD and Linux might have provided the reader with a better understanding of why large chunks of FreeBSD code are used in Macintosh OS-X.

Chapter 1 jumps straight into installation. Readers are shown how to accomplish this using either a CD drive or an ftp server, and there are screenshots illustrating each stage of the process. Those with limited disk space might wish to disregard some of the suggestions under the heading “What to Install.”

Chapter 2, “Getting More Help,” shows how “man” pages and Web resources can be used to assist with usage and solve problems. This is followed by a chapter about backup and recovery; tar and dump/restore commands for use with a tape drive are illustrated here. Also included is a section about the revision control system (RCS).

The remaining chapters follow pretty much the same sequence as those in similar books about FreeBSD. A chapter about kernel modules and kernel customization comes first in this sequence. Then there is coverage of networking (no IPV6), upgrade methodologies, and security configuration (two whole chapters).

A chapter entitled “Too Much Detail About /etc” comes close to delivering what is promised. Who really needs to know about the NO_FORTRAN option in /etc/make.conf? On the other hand, the coverage of /etc/printcap options is somewhat thin. Other chapters deal with software management, network services (DNS, ftp, mail, and so on), filesystems and disks, and performance analysis.

There is some extremely helpful material in this book. Its description of the Linux application programming interface (API) and associated libraries is among the best I’ve seen. Its remarks about symmetric multi-processors (SMP) won’t be found in too many other places.

I was especially impressed by the chapter entitled “RAID,” in which a number of Vinum configuration scenarios were presented. It’s a shame about the errors in one of the configuration files, but fortunately they are fairly obvious. I was also impressed by the sections about performance analysis, and about common Internet file system (CIFS) configuration for a Windows environment.

If you really plan on building a FreeBSD server system for Internet or other commercial usage, you should buy this book. If you are more interested in building FreeBSD workstations for desktop applications, you might get more value from Anderson [1]. Or, you could buy both.