Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther

Spencerian writes "Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther is a good tool for those who are experienced with the original Mac OS or Mac OS X, but not the Unix command line. Most of the content would not interest the traditional programmer, Linux, BSD, or other UNIX jockey, however." For Spencerian's take on why, read on for the rest of his review. Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther author Dave Taylor and Brian Jepson pages 168 publisher O'Reilly Publishing rating 8 reviewer Kevin Spencer ISBN 0596006179 summary Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther is a good tool for those who are generally comfortable with the original Mac OS or Mac OS X, but not the Unix command line. Most of the content would not interest the traditional programmer, Linux, BSD, or other UNIX jockey, however. The Finder can't do it all, and it's a good idea to realize that today's Mac OS has more ways to force it to work than its original version. This 3rd edition of the book has a better audience focus than previous editions.

This book focuses on those of us in the Mac OS professional world who have become Unix system admins by default with the introduction of OS X, and could stand to have a handy UNIX reference nearby, particularly if the Finder freezes in Apple's latest version of their BSD/OpenStep blend of a UNIX operating system.

As the authors explain in the book, the best justification for understanding and using the UNIX components present is Mac OS X is the same as in any other UNIX-family operating system: power and control. The Finder (Mac OS X's graphical desktop manager) can't do everything, so this book provides information to help power users and technicians resolve issues, install software, or create an optimized experience, all through the Terminal.

Chapters 1 and 2 provide a very helpful tutorial on the Mac OS X Terminal application, from showing the benefits of customizing the Terminal, the concept of shells, UNIX command syntax, and other obscure but useful settings that strengthen the power of the application when accessing the BSD innards of Mac OS X. Arguably, these two chapters are the strongest guide on Mac OS X's Terminal application (as it relates to its UNIX roots) that I have seen in any Mac OS X book to date.

Chapters 3 and 4 handle understanding of the UNIX filesystem, administration and superuser access, privileges, handling external volumes, file and directory names and the like. Mac OS X, while a BSD at heart, doesn't map out everything in a traditional UNIX-style directory format--at least, not from the Finder's view. Through the Terminal, a user can see the underlying, otherwise-hidden UNIX directories. The authors go through some basic but very helpful situations such as changing file and owner permissions, which can be changed from the Finder with greater ease in Panther, but not with the same finesse as done from a command line.

The file management chapter moves readers through the classic commands for moving, editing, and copying files from the command line, which can be very helpful for administrators of Mac OS X systems who must attempt repairs by SSH, for instance, and don't have access to the usual graphical elements that generally make Mac OS usage so easy. The authors don't pick sides in the vi vs. pico debate, and just offer the basic instructions on how to use either for your editing.

The book continues with the same level of complexity that local system admins or power users require in issues such as printing via CUPS, handling processes that the Finder doesn't show, using the X11 application, using Fink (a Debian-style installation application) installing OpenOffice and GIMP, using FTP and secure shell, using Pine and Lynx, and more.

For a book of just 168 pages, the authors pack quite a bit on making a Mac OS X system work from its Terminal roots. New Mac OS X system administrators will find this book most useful, particularly if their UNIX experience is lacking or radically different from what Mac OS X presents. Experienced *NIX users who bought a new Mac may find the book a good intermediary to demonstrate how Mac OS X Panther differs from the *NIX boxen they've used in the past.

You can purchase Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

Apple already provides an excellent tool

[toupsie]

Apple provides an excellent tool for learning UNIX in Mac OS X, free of charge!!!

If you don't know what a command does, type "man [command]" (without the quotes, of course).

why buy

[stonebeat.org]

Using the Mac OS X Terminal (HTML) or Using the Mac OS X Terminal (PDF)

Re:why buy

[mblase]

Using the Mac OS X Terminal (HTML) or Using the Mac OS X Terminal (PDF)

Helpful for newbies, but let's face it -- those links you provided cover maybe one-half of the first chapter of O'Reilly's book.

Re:what about Mac OS for *nix geeks?

[mblase]

So where is the Learning Mac OS X for the unix geek?

It just so happens it's available from O'Reilly as well. The Panther edition is due out in June.

Forgive Me Father, For I Am A Karma Whore...

[bfg9000]

... Macolytes who have a use for the command-line can really use GeekTool to improve their quality of life. See this picture for an example of its GUI goodness.

Okay, okay, so it's sitting there just churning the CPU. But it looks cool enough to get me chicks, so I figured you guys could use it too.

Re:The Finder

[Frymaster]

The Finder (Mac OS X's graphical desktop manager) can't do everything...

and neither can terminal.app! lord, it's the worst terminal program i've ever used. there are, however, some good replacements.

• iterm - fast and light with tabs and other neat things. my current favourite.
• glterm - it uses opengl to render fonts. no, really. results in way better performance (although at some window sizes the text is fuzzy)

Re:very useful

[Graff]

Thankfully apple's project builder don't provide as much support for creating command line tools as gui ones

Uh, sure it does. Go to File->New Project then scroll down and choose Standard Tool. Boom, a project is all set up for you to build a basic C-based command-line tool. You can also choose C++ Tool, CoreFoundation Tool, CoreServices Tool, or Foundation Tool for different libraries and programming languages.

Re:Anybody seen a hardcore unix book for Mac admin

[Phroggy]

If you have trouble configuring Apache, the Apache website doesn't help much because OS X has files in different locations.

Apache's files are in different places on different flavors of UNIX or Linux distributions - and they're different still if the administrator compiled from source.

On Mac OS X 10.3, configuration files are in /etc/httpd, log files are in /var/log/httpd, DocumentRoot is /Library/WebServer/Documents, and ScriptAlias /cgi-bin is /Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables.

On Slackware 8.1, configuration files are in /etc/apache, log files are in /var/log/apache, DocumentRoot is /var/www/htdocs, and ScriptAlias /cgi-bin is /var/www/cgi-bin.

On RedHat 9, configuration files are in /etc/httpd/conf, log files are in /var/log/httpd (symlinked at /etc/httpd/logs), DocumentRoot is /var/www/htdocs, and ScriptAlias /cgi-bin is /var/www/cgi-bin.

By default on most systems, if you've compiled from source and haven't changed any paths, configuration files are in /usr/local/apache/conf, log files are in /usr/local/apache/logs, DocumentRoot is /usr/local/apache/htdocs, and ScriptAlias /cgi-bin is /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin.

Re:The Finder

[Sigh Phi]

lord, it's the worst terminal program i've ever used.

This is unnecissarily hyperbolic. Apple's Terminal.app is fairly no-frills, but it still has some nice features, such as transforming a folder or file dropped from the Finder (or any title bar avatar) into a pathname. You can drag and copy and paste just like any other app. You can change fonts (even to non-monospace fonts). It'll emulate a number of terminals (e.g. VT-100, xterm-color, etc.) You can customize the title bar display. Set the transparency of the window itself (eye-candy). It has an unlimited scrollback buffer. It'll handle multibyte scripts (e.g. Kanji or Chinese), as well as handle a number of character encodings. It has customizable command keys.

It's leaps and bounds beyond cmd.exe. But perhaps you've had the good fortune never to have encountered that.