Freebsd
FreeBSD¶
FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular open-source BSD operating system, accounting for more than three-quarters of all installed simply, permissively licensed BSD systems.
What versions of FreeBSD are available?¶
| Current Version | Supported Until |
|---|---|
| FreeBSD 12 | December 31, 2023 |
| FreeBSD 13 | January 31, 2026 |
Using FreeBSD¶
FreeBSD uses the pkg package manager to install software and updates. You can install software using the pkg install command. For example, to install the Apache web server, you would run the following command:
pkg install apache24
Note
You must run the pkg command as root or with sudo.
You can also install multiple packages at once by separating them with a space. For example, to install Apache and PHP, you would run the following command:
pkg install apache24 php74
To update your system, you can use the pkg update command followed by the pkg upgrade command. For example, to update all packages on your system, you would run the following command:
pkg update
pkg upgrade
Managing Services¶
FreeBSD uses the service command to manage services. To start a service, you would run the following command:
service apache24 start
To stop a service, you would run the following command:
service apache24 stop
To restart a service, you would run the following command:
service apache24 restart
Next Steps¶
Now that you have a better understanding of FreeBSD, you can learn how to install FreeBSD on your server.