http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/firewalls-pf.html In 30.4.6.6. Tables Make Life Easier demo code table <clients> persist file /etc/clients the file path should be quote. table <clients> persist file "/etc/clients" or it would show a syntax error when pf try to load the configuration file. Thanks! My OS: FreeBSD 9.0 i386