Regardless of whether the software was installed from a binary package or port, most third-party applications require some level of configuration after installation. The following commands and locations can be used to help determine what was installed with the application.
Most applications install at least one default
configuration file in /usr/local/etc.
In cases where an application has a large number of
configuration files, a subdirectory will be created to hold
them. Often, sample configuration files are installed which
end with a suffix such as .sample. The
configuration files should be reviewed and possibly
edited to meet the system's needs. To edit a sample file,
first copy it without the .sample
extension.
Applications which provide documentation will install
it into /usr/local/share/doc and many
applications also install manual pages. This documentation
should be consulted before continuing.
Some applications run services which must be added
to /etc/rc.conf before starting the
application. These applications usually install a startup
script in /usr/local/etc/rc.d. See
Starting
Services for more information.
By design, applications do not run their startup script upon installation, nor do they run their stop script upon deinstallation or upgrade. This decision is left to the individual system administrator.
Users of csh(1) should run
rehash to rebuild the known binary list
in the shells PATH.
Use pkg info to determine which
files, man pages, and binaries were installed with the
application.
All FreeBSD documents are available for download at https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/doc/
Questions that are not answered by the
documentation may be
sent to <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.org>.
Send questions about this document to <freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org>.