BSD start services

FreeBSD (and NetBSD) stores all service related scripts that stop, start or restart services under /etc/rc.d or /usr/local/etc/rc.d/ directory. From these directories, you can start/stop any network or other system related services. General syntax:

/etc/rc.d/service-name {start} {stop} {status} {reload} {forceXXX} {rcvar}

Where option can be use as follows,

• start : Start a service
• stop : Stop a service
• status : Get status of a service such as if service is running or not
• reload : Reload a service, useful when you make any changes to configuration files
• forceXXX : To start, stop or restart a service regardless of the settings in /etc/rc.conf (see below for more info), the commands should be prefixed with "force". For instance to restart sshd regardless of the current /etc/rc.conf setting, you can use forcerestart (replace XXX with start, stop or restart)
• rcvar : Tells if service will be automatically starts when FreeBSD comes up (boot ups) i.e. to to check if a service is enabled in /etc/rc.conf or not.

Examples:

Start sshd service:

# /etc/rc.d/sshd start

Stop sshd service:

# /etc/rc.d/sshd stop

Restart sshd service:

# /etc/rc.d/sshd restart

However, service will not start, stop or restart if it is not configured in /etc/rc.conf file. For instance to restart sshd regardless of the current /etc/rc.conf setting, you can use forcerestart as follows:

# /etc/rc.d/sshd forcerestart

Or just start regardless of the current /etc/rc.conf setting

# /etc/rc.d/sshd forcestart

Or just stop regardless of the current /etc/rc.conf setting

# /etc/rc.d/sshd forcestop

More on /etc/rc.conf file
All freebsd services usually started automatically as specified in rc.conf. For example, enabling the SSHD daemon at startup is as simple as adding the following line to /etc/rc.conf:
sshd_enable="YES"

However, you can also use sysinstall command to add services that can start automatically as specified below:

1) Start sysinstall by typing sysinstall

# sysinstall 

2) Select Configure

3) Select Startup

4) Select the service you wish to start automatically by pressing space bar

5) When done select Ok and Exit to shell prompt