#openbsd — Public Fediverse posts

Something that doesn't happen every day, an anachronistic feature introduced some 40 years ago as part of 4.3BSD init(8), has been removed from #OpenBSD -current.

daniel@ modified src/sbin/init/*: init(8): remove support for the window= field in /etc/ttys

This feature was introduced in 4.3BSD, and announced in "Bug Fixes and Changes in 4.3BSD", dated April 15, 1986. The feature provided a way to start a window system associated with a tty before starting getty(8).

However the implementation has a few negatives and these days graphical environments are better started in other ways.

In particular:

• the window command is run with root privileges
• init(8) does not track or supervise the process as part of the tty session.
• reloading /etc/ttys by sending SIGHUP to init, can leave a stale window command cached incorrectly
• repeated reloads leak memory

Rather than fix all these issues, remove the feature instead.

For now, existing window= entries will continue to be accepted by getttyent(3), but are ignored by init(8).

ok deraadt@

Heads up! #OpenBSD/sparc64 base has switched to LLVM/Clang 22 by default! :flan_hurrah:​

https://marc.info/?l=openbsd-cvs&m=178726091916648&w=2

This was the last of the significant architectures to switch, with the last few remaining architectures likely to remain on GCC4.

./bsd.own.mk:GCC4_ARCH=alpha hppa m88k sh

Most of OpenBSD’s supported platforms are now LLVM/Clang by default, and indeed switched many years ago. LLVM/Clang was also been available experimentally on sparc64 alongside gcc since 2018.

./bsd.own.mk:CLANG_ARCH=aarch64 amd64 arm i386 mips64 powerpc powerpc64 riscv64 sparc64

(For those keeping track, that’s more than FreeBSD or other OS today has done to advance the LLVM/Clang "non-gcc" compiler ecosystem.)

I've been playing around with the m4 macro expander on #OpenBSD to make my web server config shorter.

It's a remarkably tricky tool compared to how simple it looks, but the end result more than paid for itself in my opinion.

https://nemin.hu/httpd-macros

#bsd #guide #httpd #macro

Two new preprints from my #research center!

"Is Cleaning Costly? Evaluating the -fret-cleanAnti-Return-Oriented Programming Mitigation from the OpenBSD Operating System" — an evaluation and critique of #cybersecurity #engineering: https://briancallahan.net/preprints/Callahan_Shaikh_IEEE_CARS_2026.pdf (and #blog post about it: https://briancallahan.net/blog/20260811.html)

"Write Your Way to Better Cybersecurity Awareness Training with Active Word Games" — about identifying creating cybersecurity training as a site of learning worthwhile of studying: https://briancallahan.net/preprints/Wroblewski_et_al_IEEE_CARS_2026.pdf

#academic #academia #professor #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #dragonflybsd #unix #linux #illumos #solaris #compiler #compilers #cybersec #cyber #informationsecurity #infosec

@doikayt I use #openBSD and I like it.

@theruran

I'm afraid I don't know, but possibly?

I know I configured #OpenBSD's #cwm to be somewhat tiling-like. It didn't actually tile, but allowed me to control windows with keybinds very similar to my i3wm setup (which is what I'm using on OpenBSD again)

Here's my .cwmrc config if you're curious. It'll get deleted from the web server the next time I do a blog push (in a few days or so) --

https://rldane.space/DOTcwmrc

For the interested, you can read a preprint of our latest #research on the #OpenBSD -fret-clean flag here:

https://briancallahan.net/preprints/Callahan_Shaikh_IEEE_CARS_2026.pdf

#freebsd #netbsd #dragonflybsd #bsd #linux #unix #solaris #illumos #compiler #compilers #llvm #gcc #rop #cybersecurity #cybersec #cyber #security #infosec #informationsecurity

https://github.com/nobraininside/dropQbsd
https://github.com/BawdyAnarchist/quBSD
#openbsd #qubesos #bsd #qubes

🔎 You already know which directory takes up a lot of disk space and want to clean out? With 'find' you you can search for files bigger than a specific size.

⚠️ The size option of find is different for #OpenBSD, #FreeBSD, and others.

find / -size +10000000c

💡 In my Linux example I used mebibytes. Yes, that silly name thing where we sometimes use 1000 and sometimes binary 2^10 (1024).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megabyte

#Linux #LinuxTips #commandline #files

@thesaigoneer likewise #openbsd .

Incidentally, since openSuSE is finally moving on from YaST2 in its Leap distribution, it’s actually sensibly possible for me to use it on a laptop (because suddenly it’s possible to use Colemak layout without fighting the system).

I’d love to be able to recommend openSuSE Leap to new folks here in Germany who aren’t ready for a rolling distro. Feels like it’s getting there.

💡 The #BSD family does not have the 'tac' command. Fortunately, there is an alternative: tail -r

Works like a charm on at least #OpenBSD and #FreeBSD, so probably all other BSDs as well.

👏 h/t @gletsjer

#Dataprocessing #cli #terminal #shellscript

@nivex If you have a few hours to spare, this makes for an interesting read - https://www.theos.com/deraadt/coremail.html

"This mail archive is the complete (as far as I know) communication between myself and the NetBSD core between December 15 (when they removed all my NetBSD access) and the day OpenBSD was formed. It actually goes a little further beyond that time, and includes mail from a few other people involved in the negotiations."

#openbsd #netbsd

Only had my #VPS for 3 days, but already 77 entries on the "you get automatically IP blocked if you try to brute-force my SSHD" list... The internet is a harsh place, but thankfully #OpenBSD's pf is even harsher.

🐡🥊🤖

Latest 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀 - 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲/𝟬𝟴/𝟭𝟳 (Valuable News - 2026/08/17) available.

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/08/17/valuable-news-2026-08-17/

Past releases: https://vermaden.wordpress.com/news/

#verblog #vernews #news #bsd #freebsd #openbsd #netbsd #linux #unix #zfs #opnsense #ghostbsd #solaris #vermadenday

I want to use #FreeBSD or #NetBSD as my main driver. The sole requirement I have is a working Citrix client. Has anybody had success in running #Citrix on either one? (I know that #openbsd does not support it, as it's my main driver on my second device, but... I would like to have a non Linux, Windows, Mac as main main driver).

Do you find yourself using 'ps aux | grep process' a lot? (or ps -ef | grep)

🧰 Meet the process grepping tool: pgrep

🎯 You can use it to quickly find matching entries. By default it will show the process ID, but more information is possible, like the process name.

This command is part of the P family. So meet another one: pkill. It can be used to do the grepping and send a signal to processes 💣️

This tool is also available to most Linux distributions 🐧

#OpenBSD #BSDTips #Linux #terminal

Off sick today and thought I'd spend the day installing and playing with #NetBSD due to following along with @nina_kali_nina 's adventures and feeling the itch (as well as them being anti-AI), but unfortunately they have zero support for my wifi card. Thankfully #OpenBSD does. I'm just hopeful they will be good about their AI usage.. what a world we live in.

Anyway I'm posting this from OpenBSD running KDE Plasma 6 and connected over wifi. It's fun trying to get this set up.. like the old days!

🧰 The 'column' command is a great (and often overlooked) tool.

It creates structured output of data and turns it into columns, hence the name. It makes it easier to understand the data and its values. Great for CSV and data files.

💡 You already might have the command on your system, as it usually is installed on #Linux, #FreeBSD, #OpenBSD and others.

What other commands would you recommend for dealing with data?

If you like the effort I'm putting into these tips, please get them far 🔁 🚀

Also want to learn more common key combinations to speed up navigating within your terminal?

For example the Ctrl+A and Ctrl+E to navigate to the beginning and end of the line.

OpenBSD's ksh has a built-in command to display key bindings: bind

Little small things that make life easier 😍

🔁 #OpenBSD #BSDTips #BSD #terminal

If any of my work on #OpenBSD, or my highlight posts here (or elsewhere) has been helpful in the past, a small recurring monthly donation would be extremely appreciated. :flan_heart:​

https://brynet.ca/wallofpizza.html

https://bsd.network/@brynet/114458997143046937