# Chapter Introduction #

[Author](authors.html): Jeremy C. Reed [[reed]] NetBSD/FreeBSD/OpenBSD/DragonFly

<!-- NOTE: no real "tech" review here, please sign up for a specific topic page. Thanks -->

[Reviewer](technical_reviewers.html): _name_ _[[contact]]_ _[[BSD_flavour]]_

[Reviewer](technical_reviewers.html): _name_ _[[contact]]_ _[[BSD_flavour]]_

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Welcome to The BSD Associate Study Guide: The Beginning BSD Unix Administration Book.
This book is a quick
reference and great way to quickly learn BSD administration skills.
These topics are based on the objectives published by the BSD Certification
Group in the 2005 BSDA Certification Requirements Document. The BSDA (BSD
Associate) Certification is for BSD Unix system administrators with
light to moderate skills. You can find out more about the BSDA and the goals and activities of the BSD Certification Group at http://www.bsdcertification.org      

This book provides basic examples and pointers to further documentation
and learning resources. This book is not a comprehensive reference.
While this is a beginner's book, it is also useful for experienced
administrators.

This book covers generic *BSD administration and specific
skills as necessary for NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD and DragonFly BSD.

<!--
This document was compiled and edited by Jeremy C. Reed, a founding
member of the BSD Certification Group.
-->

### What is BSD? ###

<!-- This is not part of the BSDA, but interesting for the preface. -->

TODO:

- Style of License

- Family of Complete Operating Systems

- Unix history and Experience

- Modern and Innovative

- Portable

- Reliable and Secure

- Community

### Credits ###

This book was written by a community of BSD experts and fans who collaborated via a wiki website where
anyone could contribute with writing, reviewing, proofreading and sharing valuable feedback.

TODO: this section might be partially generated from the list of known authors and technical reviewers.

Also thank you to Hiroki SATO and AllBSD.org for providing a server for hosting the initial book development website.

A huge variety of software was used to generate this book.
The operating system hosting the Wiki and the book build systems is NetBSD.
The Wiki is powered by IkiWiki with a few modifications to use "rcs" as the backend.
The Markup language is handled by a modified version of Markdown.
The book conversion to LaTeX is also done with a modified version of html2latex.
And the book's PDF is generated using teTeX.

### Conventions ###

TODO: this section will describe the format and typefaces used for examples, input, output, pathnames,
etc. as to be seen in the final printed format. The [[style_guide]] will document how this can be done in the wiki.






