Hello, When I go to the etc directory I can run ls and see the programs listed with no problem. I can't run/execute them. I can run programs found under other folders. Sorry, I can't provide any direct examples right now. Can anybody provide a pointer or two? I found a Unix book in my closet but it doesn't seem to answer questions like these. thanks in advance

The /etc and also in the case of FreeBSD /usr/local/etc directories usually contain configuration files for programs. If you want to know what you can execute, run ls -l in some directory. In the first column, you shoud see 10 characters. 1 Special notes, like directory, or symbolic link 2-4 read, write and execute privs for the owner 5-7 read , write and execute privs for the group 8-10 read, write and execute privs for everyone So privs for a world executable binary might look like -r-xr-xr-x something A file that is modifiable and executable by the owner and the group might look like -rwxrwx--- something Does this make it more clear?

Yes it does. I'm probably going to buy Unix for dummies or something to that effect. I want to reserve this board for the real tough issues. With that said, I have a few more questions, if I may before I buy the book. Which included programs are used for system diagnostics? In DOS command like mem allow me to view memory resources, ver gives me the software version and so on. I want to see exactly what resources/services are in use upon bootup. I can get all this information in the Windows Control Panel. How do I do it with Unix or is this too broad of a question? thanks as always, pt

Have a look at the freebsd handbook. You can browse or search online at the freebsd.org site, or you can d/l from ftp://ftp.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ Or you can find it in bookstores. It was a big help to me. On to your question - the 'ps' command ( process status ) will list all running processes. The syntax is slightly different that linux but to see all running jobs for all users ps -ax to look at a single job ps -ax | grep programname To see a real time performance monitor, have a look at 'top'. It will show your current memory usage, virtual memory usage and the top 20 or so most CPU demanding processes running. I'm sure the are many similar GUI tools but I never fun in GUI mode so I can't help you with that answer. Many programs will output version information if you use the '-V' flag. Check the man pages for a particular command to verify. Sendmail is different sendmail -d.11 < /dev/null You will find as you look at top, that although there may be in excess of 50 processes running at a time, most are using 0 cpu time and only a little memory. The web server for example spawns child processes when it starts so they can wait and be ready to answer requests. Other processes like telnet and ftp are started on demand. They use no resources until a client requests that service, then they start up.