Many Linux® distributions use the SysV init system, whereas
      FreeBSD uses the traditional BSD-style init(8).  Under the
      BSD-style init(8), there are no run-levels and
      /etc/inittab does not exist.  Instead,
      startup is controlled by rc(8) scripts.  At system boot,
      /etc/rc reads
      /etc/rc.conf and
      /etc/defaults/rc.conf
      to determine which services are to be started.  The specified
      services are then started by running the corresponding service
      initialization scripts located in
      /etc/rc.d/ and
      /usr/local/etc/rc.d/.  These scripts are
      similar to the scripts located in
      /etc/init.d/ on Linux® systems.
The scripts found in /etc/rc.d/ are for
      applications that are part of the “base” system,
      such as cron(8), sshd(8), and syslog(3).  The
      scripts in /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ are for
      user-installed applications such as
      Apache and
      Squid.
Since FreeBSD is developed as a complete operating system,
      user-installed applications are not considered to be part of
      the “base” system.  User-installed applications
      are generally installed using Packages
	or Ports.  In order to keep them separate from the base
      system, user-installed applications are installed under
      /usr/local/.  Therefore, user-installed
      binaries reside in /usr/local/bin/,
      configuration files are in /usr/local/etc/,
      and so on.
Services are enabled by adding an entry for the service in
      /etc/rc.conf .  The system defaults are
      found in /etc/defaults/rc.conf and these
      default settings are overridden by settings in
      /etc/rc.conf.  Refer to rc.conf(5) for
      more information about the available entries.  When installing
      additional applications, review the application's install
      message to determine how to enable any associated
      services.
The following entries in /etc/rc.conf
      enable sshd(8), enable Apache
	2.4, and specify that
      Apache should be started with
      SSL.
# enable SSHD sshd_enable="YES" # enable Apache with SSL apache24_enable="YES" apache24_flags="-DSSL"
Once a service has been enabled in
      /etc/rc.conf, it can be started without
      rebooting the system:
#servicesshdstart#serviceapache24start
If a service has not been enabled, it can be started from
      the command line using onestart:
#servicesshdonestart
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>.