---
name: "intro"
section: "8"
platform: "freebsd"
package: "base"
version: "16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79"
release: "FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27)"
platforms: ["linux", "freebsd", "openbsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/intro/8"
---

# intro(8)

introduction to system maintenance procedures and commands

## NAME

**intro** – introduction to system maintenance procedures and commands

## DESCRIPTION

This section contains information related to system operation and maintenance.

It describes commands used to create new file systems ([newfs(8)](/newfs/8.md)), verify the integrity of the file systems ([fsck(8)](/fsck/8.md)), control disk usage ([edquota(8)](/edquota/8.md)), maintain system backups ([dump(8)](/dump/8.md)), and recover files when disks die an untimely death ([restore(8)](/restore/8.md)). Network related services like [inetd(8)](/inetd/8.md) are also described.

All commands set an exit status. Its value may be tested to see if the command completed normally. Unless otherwise noted (rare), the value 0 signifies successful completion of the command, while a value \>0 indicates an error. Some commands attempt to describe the nature of the failure by using error codes defined in [sysexits(3)](/sysexits/3.md), or set the status to arbitrary values \>0 (typically 1), but many such values are not described in the manual.

A number of pages in this section describe general system management topics.

For example, the [boot(8)](/boot/8.md) manual page describes the system bootstrapping procedures, and the [diskless(8)](/diskless/8.md) manual page describes how to boot a system over a network. The [crash(8)](/crash/8.md) manual page should be consulted to understand how to interpret system crash dumps.

## HISTORY

The **intro** section manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.