FreeBSD Developers' Handbook

The FreeBSD Documentation Project

Welcome to the Developers' Handbook. This manual is a work in progress and is the work of many individuals. Many sections do not yet exist and some of those that do exist need to be updated. If you are interested in helping with this project, send email to the FreeBSD documentation project mailing list.

The latest version of this document is always available from the FreeBSD World Wide Web server. It may also be downloaded in a variety of formats and compression options from the FreeBSD FTP server or one of the numerous mirror sites.


Table of Contents
I. Basics
1 Introduction
1.1 Developing on FreeBSD
1.2 The BSD Vision
1.3 Architectural Guidelines
1.4 The Layout of /usr/src
2 Programming Tools
2.1 Synopsis
2.2 Introduction
2.3 Introduction to Programming
2.4 Compiling with cc
2.5 Make
2.6 Debugging
2.7 Using Emacs as a Development Environment
2.8 Further Reading
3 Secure Programming
3.1 Synopsis
3.2 Secure Design Methodology
3.3 Buffer Overflows
3.4 SetUID issues
3.5 Limiting your program's environment
3.6 Trust
3.7 Race Conditions
4 Localization and Internationalization - L10N and I18N
4.1 Programming I18N Compliant Applications
4.2 Localized Messages with POSIX.1 Native Language Support (NLS)
5 Source Tree Guidelines and Policies
5.1 MAINTAINER on Makefiles
5.2 Contributed Software
5.3 Encumbered Files
5.4 Shared Libraries
6 Regression and Performance Testing
6.1. Micro Benchmark Checklist
II. Interprocess Communication
7 Sockets
7.1 Synopsis
7.2 Networking and Diversity
7.3 Protocols
7.4 The Sockets Model
7.5 Essential Socket Functions
7.6 Helper Functions
7.7 Concurrent Servers
8 IPv6 Internals
8.1 IPv6/IPsec Implementation
III. Kernel
9 Building and Installing a FreeBSD Kernel
9.1 Building a Kernel the “Traditional” Way
9.2 Building a Kernel the “New” Way
10 Kernel Debugging
10.1 Obtaining a Kernel Crash Dump
10.2 Debugging a Kernel Crash Dump with kgdb
10.3 Debugging a Crash Dump with DDD
10.4 Post-Mortem Analysis of a Dump
10.5 On-Line Kernel Debugging Using DDB
10.6 On-Line Kernel Debugging Using Remote GDB
10.7 Debugging Loadable Modules Using GDB
10.8 Debugging a Console Driver
10.9 Debugging Deadlocks
10.10 Glossary of Kernel Options for Debugging
IV. Architectures
11 x86 Assembly Language Programming
11.1 Synopsis
11.2 The Tools
11.3 System Calls
11.4 Return Values
11.5 Creating Portable Code
11.6 Our First Program
11.7 Writing UNIX® Filters
11.8 Buffered Input and Output
11.9 Command Line Arguments
11.10 UNIX® Environment
11.11 Working with Files
11.12 One-Pointed Mind
11.13 Using the FPU
11.14 Caveats
11.15 Acknowledgements
V. Appendices
Bibliography
List of Examples
2-1. A sample .emacs file

This, and other documents, can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/.

For questions about FreeBSD, read the documentation before contacting <questions@FreeBSD.org>.
For questions about this documentation, e-mail <doc@FreeBSD.org>.