This section abstracts some of the resource data from Appendix B of A Practical Guide to Solaris. Please send me any additions or corrections to this list. Thanks,

Mark Sobell

 

Contents


 

System Documentation and Information

Distributions of Solaris come with reference manual pages stored online. You can read these documents, referred to as man pages, using the man or xman utility (give the command man man). You can read man pages to get more information about specific topics or to determine what features are available with Solaris. You can search for topics using the apropos utility (give the command apropos apropos or man apropos).

In addition to the man utility, Solaris offers other online information. AnswerBook2 provides queriable, hypertext-linked access to additional information on utilities, hardware, software, and system features.

 

Where Can I Find More Documentation?

There are quite a few good books available on different aspects of using and administrating UNIX systems in general and Solaris systems in specific. In addition you may find the following documents useful:

Tool

What It Does

Where to Get It

Solaris FAQ

A thorough FAQ maintained by Casper Dik and broken into groups: General/Sources of Information/System Administration/ Networking/Troubleshooting/ Software Development/Kernel Parameters.

www.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris/solaris2

FAQs

Frequently Asked (Answered) Questions of all types.

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub (Get index-byname and search for solaris. This index is large [300K+] as it covers all news groups.) metalab.unc.edu/pub/solaris/FAQS

RFCs

Request for Comments.

ftp://ftp.uu.net/inet/rfc (download rfc-index for a list of RFCs)

Sun Security Bulletin Archive

A list of almost all of the security bulletins sent out by Sun.

sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/secbul.pl

 

Where Can I Look Up a Word?

There are many online dictionaries on the Web. The following list shows a few of them.

Name

Specialty

Where to Get It

whatis?com

knowledge exploration tool

whatis.com

Tech Encyclopedia

computer terms

www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

computer terms

www.InstantWeb.com/~foldoc

Military Maritime Command and Control System (MCCIS): Project Documentation

security

cliffie.nosc.mil/~NAPDOC/docprj/security/glossary-of-compusec-terms/index.html

Sun Glossary

general and Solaris specific computer terms

www.sun.com/glossary/glossary.html

Merriam-Webster

English language

www.m-w.com/dictionary

 

What Are Some Useful Solaris Internet Sites?

Often these particular sites are so busy that you cannot log in. When this happens you are usually given a list of alternative, or mirror, sites to try.

Location

What It Does

Where to Get It

Sun

(USA) Sun's Solaris home page. Links to downloads, drivers, articles, and more.

www.sun.com/solaris

UNC

(USA) The browser and ftp entry into the University of North Carolina's Metalab (formerly named sunsite), which contains a lot of Solaris source, binary, and documentation files.

metalab.unc.edu/pub/solaris

Sun

(USA) Sun provides compiled free software for Solaris 2.5, 2.6, and System 7 on x86 and SPARC platforms.

sunfreeware.com

Sun

(USA) Sun provides all AnswerBook2 documentation ever produced on CD.

docs.sun.com

Sun

(USA) Sun provides a searchable index of white papers, bug reports, problem issues, patches, FAQs, and more (registered users only).

sunsolve1.sun.com

Sun (Canada)

(CA) The Sun Canadian groups put up a lot of freeware in the pub directory tree both as source and as precompiled binaries ready to install.

opcom.sun.ca

Sun

(USA) A list of Solaris links.

sunfreeware.com/othersites.html

GNU

(USA) Central site for Free Software Foundation (GNU) software.

ftp://ftp.gnu.org:/pub/gnu (cd to pub/gnu.) Also see www.gnu.org.

Network Associates

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) information.

www.pgp.com (commercial site, has free software)

X Consortium

(USA) Central site for X Window System software.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib

Doug

(USA) Source code, security, and intrusion detection tools, lpd information, and more.

www.eng.auburn.edu/~doug/second.html

 

What Are the Names of Some Solaris Newsgroups?

One of the best ways of getting specific information is through a newsgroup. Frequently you can find the answer to your question just by reading postings to the newsgroup. Try using dejanews power search to look through newsgroups (www.dejanews.com) to see if your question has already been asked and answered. If necessary, you can post your question for someone to answer. Make sure your question has not been answered before you post it.

Newsgroup Area Covered

alt.solaris.x86

Intel group

alt.sys.sun

Small general Solaris newsgroup

comp.sys.sun.admin

Administrators

comp.sys.sun.apps

Applications

comp.sys.sun.hardware

Hardware

comp.sys.sun.misc

Miscellaneous

comp.sys.sun.wanted

Sun hardware and software wanted to buy

comp.unix.solaris

Main Solaris newsgroup

 

What Are Some Useful Mailing Lists?

Subscribing to a mailing list allows you to participate in an electronic discussion. With most lists, you can send email to and receive email from a group of users that is dedicated to a specific topic. Moderated lists do not tend to stray as much as unmoderated lists, assuming the list has a good moderator. The disadvantage of a moderated list is that some discussions may be cut off when they get interesting if the moderator deems the discussion has gone on for too long. Mail lists described as bulletins are strictly unidirectional: You cannot post information to these lists but can only receive periodic bulletins. If you have the subscription address for a mailing list but are not sure how to subscribe, put the word help in the body and/or header of email that you send to the address. You will usually receive instructions via email.

List Name

Subscription Address

Type

Description

bugtraq

listserv@netspace.org

moderated

Full disclosure mailing list on operating system, program bugs, and security holes. Tendency for tangential discussions.

CERT

cert-advisory-request@cert.org

bulletins

Security advisories.

CIAC

majordomo@rumpole.llnl.gov
body: subscribe ciac-bulletin

bulletins

Announcements about viruses and vendor security holes.

firewalls

majordomo@gnac.com
body: subscribe firewalls

open

Discussions about firewall policy and implementation issues. Discussions can be off track.

firewall wizards

firewall-wizards@nfr.net

moderated

Moderated doppelganger for firewalls.

freefire

freefire-l-request@inka.de

bulletins

Announcements of free firewalls and toolkits.

ssa-managers

majordomo@eng.auburn.edu
body: subscribe ssa-managers

open

Issues relating to SPARCStorage devices and the controlling software (A1000, D1000, SPARCStorage array, A5000, Veritas Volume Manager, Solstice DiskSuite, and so on).

sun-managers

majordomo@sunmanagers.ececs.uc.edu
body: subscribe sun-managers

open

Mail list cross-posted to comp.sys.sun.admin for discussions about Sun operating systems and SPARC-based computers.

SunSolve Early Notifier

SunSolve-EarlyNotifier@Sun.COM

bulletin

Early notification of the release of OS patches.

Best of Security

best-of-security-request@cyber.com.au

bulletin

A digested form of bugtraq.

COAST Sec-urity archive

coast-request@cs.purdue.edu

bulletin

Periodic updates and announcements from the COAST team.

WWW Security

majordomo@nsmx.rutgers.edu

open

Discussions of WWW security issues and their solutions.

 

How Do I Find the Program I Want on the Internet?

There are many ways to learn of interesting software packages and where they are available on the Internet. The following tables list many free packages and sites. Many of these sites have additional packages available; you just have to look around for them (click on various directories from your browser or use cd and ls from ftp-see the following sections).

Another way to learn about a package is through a newsgroup. If your newsreader can use HTML links in the messages to download the software directly, it will locate the package and run ftp automatically. If not, you will have to use the steps outlined in the following sections and use ftp or your browser to download the software.

Utility Programs

Following are just a few of the many sites on the Internet from which you can obtain utility programs that run on Solaris systems.

Tool

What It Does

Where to Get It

cdrecord

A CDROM burner that works with most available CD-R and CD-RW devices.

ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/cdrecord

Subnet mask calculator

Calculates subnet masks (used when setting up a network).

www.ccci.com/tools/subcalc/index.html

patch (GNU)

Similar to the Solaris-supplied patch, but better.

ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/patch/patch-2.5.tar.gz

fastpatch

For applying Sun OS patches to Solaris 2.5.1 or lower. Much faster than installpatch, but cannot be backed out.

ftp://ftp.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris/auto-install

fix-modes

Sets system file and directory permissions to more reasonable defaults.

ftp://ftp.wins.uva.nl/pub/solaris

lsof

Displays all open files (including devices and network connections).

ftp://vic.cc.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/lsof

lynx

A free text-only character-based Web browser.

www.crl.com/~subir/lynx.html

memconf

Shows what kinds of SIMMs are in which slots in a SPARC station.

www.rkdltd.demon.co.uk

proctool

Get information on processes.

ftp://opcom.sun.ca/pub/freeware/sparc

procmail

Email filtering software.

www.procmail.org
ftp://ftp.procmail.org/pub/procmail

qps

A fast, minimial replacement for built-in ps. Will work when ps does not.

ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug

sformat

An improved, free replacement disk analyzer and formatter for UNIX (requires scg).

ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/sformat
ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/kernel/scg

star

Free, faster, POSIX-compliant replacement for Solaris tar.

ftp://ftp.fokus.gmd.de/pub/unix/star

RAPS/toptool

Software performance monitoring tool for Solaris.

www.foglight.com/product/toptool.html

top

A utility that gives continual reports about the state of a system, including a list of which processes are using most of the CPU's resources.

ftp://ftp.groupsys.com/pub/top

 

Security Programs

There are many sites that contain many programs dedicated to system security..

Tool

What It Does

Where to Get It

COAST/CERIAS

COAST/CERIAS Security Archives at Purdue.

ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix www.cs.purdue.edu/coast/archive
www.cerias.purdue.edu

CERT

Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute Computer Emergency Response Team coordination center.

www.cert.org

cops

Finds bad passwords and audits your system.

ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/cops

crack

Finds bad passwords.

ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/sudo

sudo

Restricts and audits su usage.

www.courtesan.com/sudo

priv

Restricts and audits su usage.

ftp://ftp.ucdavis.edu/pub/unix

des

File encryption.

ftp://ftp.hacktic.nl/pub/crypto/applied-crypto

Sun Security Bulletins

Sun Security Bulletins.

sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/secbul.pl

Sun Security Patches

Sun Security Patches.

sunsolve.sun.com/sunsolve/pubpatches/patches.html

privtool

A free mail user agent that is a look-alike for Sun's OpenLook mailtool, but which provides an interface to PGP.

http://www.netspace.net.au/~ggt/privtool.html

PGP

Software, information, and related products.

www.pgp.com or www.nai.com ftp://ftp.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/pgp

PGPelm

A PGP-enabled version of the popular UNIX email client Elm.

ftp://ftp.sunet.se/pub/security/pgp/utils/elm

RIPEM

An encryption routine that has received more widespread use than PEM, but still lacks the broad base of PGP. Current versions are available outside the United States without restrictions.

ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/replay/crypto/APPS/ripem

PGP and PEM sendmail

Encryption routines. There are PGP and PEM extended versions of sendmail. Also see RIPEM.

ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp/utils (PGP sendmail extensions and other PGP enabled programs)
comp.mail.sendmail newsgroup-FAQ

SKIP

Encrypts all traffic between two machines at the session level.

www.skip.org

IPSec

Secures machine-to-machine communications (notes).

www.ietf.org/html.charters/ipsec-charter.html

cfs

Cryptographic filesystem by Matt Blaze.

www.cryptography.org
comp.security.firewalls newsgroup

tripwire

Checks your host for possible signs of intruder activity.

ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/COAST/Tripwire www.tripwiresecurity.com

satan

Scans your host and network for known vulnerabilities (showing its age).

ftp://ciac.llnl.gov/pub/ciac/sectools/unix/satan ftp://coast.cs.purdue.edu/pub/COAST/tools/SATAN_Extensions.tar.Z

SecurID card

Security Dynamics Technologies, Inc.

www.securid.com

Miscellaneous security

Miscellaneous security.

Also check www.hacktic.nl (Hack-Tic Magazine Archive [in Dutch]) and www.cryptography.com (U.S. and Canada only).

 

Communication Programs

Tool

What It Does

Where to Get It

BIND

The original domain name services source code.

ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/bind

qpopper The most popular standalone POP daemon. ftp://ftp.qualcomm.com/eudora/servers/unix/popper

cyrus

An IMAP and POP mail server.

ftp://ftp.andrew.cmu.edu/pub/cyrus-mail

dp

A free PPP replacement.

www.ces.purdue.edu/dp

majordomo

Free mailing list software.

ftp://ftp.greatcircle.com/pub/majordomo

smartlist

Free mailing list software.

www.procmail.org
ftp://ftp.procmail.org/pub/procmail/

mailman

GNU mailing list manager.

www.list.org

listserv

Free mailing list software.

www.l-soft.com

ppp

A free PPP replacement.

ftp://cs.anu.edu.au/pub/software/ppp

Everything serial

Serial port utilities, resources, programming tips, PPP, and modem settings.

www.stokely.com

pine

A popular cross-platform mail client.

ftp://ftp.cac.washington.edu/pine
www.cac.washington.edu/pine

sendmail

The original version of sendmail from the University of California at Berkeley.

ftp://ftp.sendmail.org/pub/sendmail/

 

Miscellaneous Programs

Tool

What It Does

Where to Get It

Acroread

The Adobe Acrobat PDF reader.

www.adobe.com (click on Free Plug-ins and Updates, UNIX adjacent to Acrobat Reader, and then on Solaris.)

apache

The most popular Web server in the world.

www.apache.org

inn

The most popular USENET news server source.

ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/inn

bootpd

A Bootp server for UNIX (also answers DHCP requests).

ftp://ftp.eng.auburn.edu/pub/doug

dhcp

A DHCP server for UNIX.

ftp://ftp.isc.org/isc/dhcp

gnuplot

A GNU X plotting program.

ftp://ftp.dartmouth.edu/pub/gnuplot

change-sun-hostid

A suite of utilities for manipulating system hostid and other NVRAM properties on SPARC stations.

ftp://ftp.mindlink.net/pub/crypto/sun-stuff

ImageMagick

A suite of image manipulation, display, and conversion programs.

ftp://ftp.x.org

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program (similar to PhotoShop).

www.gimp.org

perl

A popular general-purpose language, frequently used for WWW CGI scripting.

www.perl.org

CPAN

Comprehensive Perl Archive Network.

www.cpan.org

Tcl/Tk

Popular extension language and GUI toolkit.

www.scriptics.com

neosoft

Tcl/Tk archive.

www.neosoft.com/tcl

ups

A graphical debugger.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities

sysinfo

Query system information, configuration, and devices.

http://www.magnicomp.com/

xmgr

An X plotting/graphing program.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications

tgif

X-based drawing program.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/tgif

xfig

X-based drawing program.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/xfig

transfig

Translates xfig files to other formats.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications/drawing_tools/transfig

xv

X-based image display, manipulation, and conversion program.

www.trilon.com/xv

sas

Commercial program from SAS Inc.

www.sas.com

samba

Turns your UNIX workstation into a CIFS/SMB file server that looks like an NT server.

samba.anu.edu.au

netatalk

Turns your UNIX workstation into an Appletalk server for Macs.

ftp://terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu/unix/netatalk

xview

An OpenLook GUI toolkit.

ftp://ftp.x.org

proctool

A GUI that gives enhanced ps-like functionality.

http://sunfreeware.com

SE

The system engineer's toolkit. This is a suite of utilities for diagnosing system performance problems and finding bottlenecks.

www.sun.com/sun-on-net/performance/se3

xpdf

A PDF document viewer.

www.foolabs.com/xpdf

mxgdb

A GUI front end to gdb debugger.

ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/applications

System patches

 

sunsolve.Sun.COM/pub-cgi/us/pubpatchpage.pl