Finding My Way On FreeBSD

I recently landed a client who's hosting environment wasn't the usual Linux or Windows - it was FreeBSD. Even though FreeBSD and Linux share a common philosophy, I still found myself quite disoriented after logging in. Here are a few items I managed to figure out in a hurry:

• I wanted to install GNU screen, and figured there had to be an equivalent to yum on FreeBSD. And of course there is, it's pkg_add. I ran the command:

  sudo pkg_add -r screen 
  

  and a few seconds later, screen was installed.
• The find command kept error'ing out on me when I ran it. Turns out the syntax is just a bit pickier on FreeBSD than Linux. For example, I was entering:

  find -name 'foo'
  

  but should have been entering:

  find . -name 'foo'
  

  The starting path, which is optional on Linux is required on FreeBSD. This cheatsheet proved useful for untangling this one.
• I went to restart apache and realized the /etc/ tree was significantly different on FreeBSD than on Linux. Apparently the preferred way to restart apache is:

  /usr/local/sbin/apachectl stop
  /usr/local/sbin/apachectl start
  

  I found this howto to be just what I needed to resolve this issue. In fact, freebsddiary.com looks like it might be a handy resource going forward.
• Bonus: While not FreeBSD specific, I did need to figure out how to run PHP4 and PHP5 on the same box at the same time. Unfortunately, simply loading both modules doesn't work. I ended up keeping PHP4 as a module, and kicking off PHP5 via CGI. The solution is outlined here. I'm not in love with performance ramifications of running PHP5 out of cgi-bin, but all things considered, it's a clean solution.

It's amazing how the littlest things can make working in a new server environment feel like your only limping along. Luckily, the leap from Linux to FreeBSD is painless enough that I was jogging in no time.