OpenBSD Introduction

The OpenBSD FAQ and man pages are the final source of information for OpenBSD. You can also often search official project pages. For example, here are the project pages for relayd and OpenSMTPd.

Sample Config Files

Many system daemons that come bundled in OpenBSD base have sample configuration files that you can reference in /etc/examples/. For example, suppose you want to configure a web server. First, start with:

$ doas cp /etc/examples/httpd.conf /etc/httpd.conf

Then work using that configuration file as a template.

Package READMEs

Take a look at any README files in /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/ . Often there are special configuration instructions to get a package to work properly on OpenBSD.

IRC Chat Room

You can find help in our unofficial OpenBSD IRC channel at irc.ircnow.org #openbsd. But before you ask a question, learn how to ask questions.

Mailing Lists

You can often find your questions answered by searching through the OpenBSD mailing lists, which are conveniently archived at marc.info. These are often answered by the OpenBSD developers themselves.

NOTE: Before sending mail, please be considerate of other subscribers and follow proper netiquette:

  1. Read all documentation before posting, such as INSTALL.* text files, the FAQ, and man pages. Make sure to search the mailing list archives.
  2. Include important information such as relevant hardware from dmesg, configuration files, error messages, and so forth

The most popular mailing list is misc@openbsd.org.

News

undeadly.org is a reliable source of updates and announcements from the OpenBSD team and user community. You are encouraged to add its RSS feed.