Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Leopard)
by Ernest E. Rothman, Brian Jepson, Rich Rosen
List Price:
Our Price: $15.51
You Save: $19.48 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.89 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Brian Jepson, Ernest E. Rothman, Rich RosenEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-25
ISBN: 059652062X
Number of pages: 432
Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780596520625
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Leopard)
Book Review: How I learned Mac OS X
Summary: 5 Stars
I love Mac OS X, but I could not learn how to use it until I bought this book. Of course I bought "The Missing Manual" by David Pogue, but even with that excellent book, I could not learn how OS X accounts and permissions work from the GUI point of view. Then I bought "Mac OS X for Unix Geeks" and I saw clearly how OS X accounts and permissions work from the Unix-like foundation. Now I can open a Terminal window and type "pwd" to see my home directory is in the "/Users" directory. I can go to the root ("cd /") and list the contents ("ls") to see how the rest of the machine is laid out. Now that I see where everything really is (hidden by the GUI), now I can learn how the multiple accounts and permissions work. And now I can use the GUI, too.
My opinion may be in the minority, but I found this book was essential to get me started using my Mac, even to use the GUI that is supposed to be so user-friendly and self-evident.
Summary of Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Leopard)
If you're a developer or system administrator lured to Mac OS X because of its Unix roots, you'll quickly discover that performing Unix tasks on a Mac is different than what you're accustomed to. Mac OS X for Unix Geeks serves as a bridge between Apple's Darwin OS and the more traditional Unix systems. This clear, concise guide gives you a tour of Mac OS X's Unix shell in both Leopard and Tiger, and helps you find the facilities that replace or correspond to standard Unix utilities.
You'll learn how to perform common Unix tasks in Mac OS X, such as using Directory Services instead of the standard Unix /etc/passwd and /etc/group, and you'll be able to compile code, link to libraries, and port Unix software using either Leopard and Tiger. This book teaches you to:
- Navigate the Terminal and understand how it differs from an xterm
- Use Open Directory (LDAP) and NetInfo as well as Directory Services
- Compile your code with GCC 4
- Port Unix programs to Mac OS X with Fink
- Use MacPorts to install free/open source software
- Search through metadata with Spotlight's command-line utilities
- Build the Darwin kernel
And there's much more. Mac OS X for Unix Geeks is the ideal survival guide to tame the Unix side of Leopard and Tiger. If you're a Unix geek with an interest in Mac OS X, you'll soon find that this book is invaluable.
It's about time: Mac OS X for Unix Geeks arrives on the scene none too soon for UNIX aficionados who, having heard that the latest editions of Mac OS are based on a UNIX variant, want to see how the platform compares to more venerable versions of the eminently configurable operating system. This book highlights some key differences between the Darwin environment and more conventional UNIXs, enabling people with UNIX experience to take advantage of it as they learn the Mac OS X way of doing things at the command line.
This skinny volume neither aims to teach its readers UNIX nor introduce them to the Mac, but rather to show how Apple has implemented UNIX. It's a fast read that assumes--as the title implies--rather a lot of UNIX knowledge. With that requirement satisfied and this book in hand, you're likely to discover aspects of Aqua more quickly than you otherwise would have.
The authors spend lots of time explaining how administrative tasks--such as managing groups, users, and passwords--are handled in the Mac OS environment. They document netinfo fully, and call attention to its limitations (like its inability to create home directories for users) by explaining how to do the job on the command line. They also cover C programming in the Darwin universe at greater length than any other book does, providing explicit instructions for such important tasks as creating header files and linking static libraries. A guide to the command line (they call the reference section--groan--"The Missing Manpages") provides good value at this book's conclusion. --David Wall
Topics covered: How to get around in Darwin, the UNIX implementation built into Mac OS X. Sections deal with basic maneuvering at the command line, LDAP services, C programming, and graphical user interfaces under Aqua. There's a short section on building the kernel itself, but it's limited in scope.
MacOS Books
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Apple Pro Training Series: Getting Started with Final Cut Studioby Peachpit Press
Peachpit Press; Published: 2005-07-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
Quartz 2D Graphics for Mac OS X® Developersby R. Scott Thompson
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2006-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.98
Price in other shops:
Apple Training Series: iLife 05by Michael Rubin
Peachpit Press; Published: 2005-04-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.02
Price in other shops:
Apple Training Series: GarageBand 2by Mary Plummer
Peachpit Press; Published: 2005-04-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.51
Price in other shops:
Look Who's Using GarageBand: How the World is Making Music with the World's Easiest Music-Making Software (Voices)by Martin Gisborne
New Riders Press; Published: 2006-12-02; Paperback; Book
Price in other shops:
Macromedia Flash MX 2004 for Windows & Macintoshby Katherine Ulrich
Peachpit Press; Published: 2003-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.01
Price in other shops:
Mac OS X Disaster Relief, Updated Editionby Ted Landau
Peachpit Press; Published: 2002-12-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $47.65
Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, The, Jaguar Edition (2nd Edition)by Robin Williams
Peachpit Press; Published: 2003-01-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.86
Price in other shops:
MacBook Pro Portable Geniusby Brad Miser
Wiley; Published: 2008-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Mac OS X: The Complete Referenceby Jesse Feiler
McGraw-Hill/Osborne Media; Published: 2001-05-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.74
Price in other shops:
Unix in a Nutshell, Fourth Editionby Arnold Robbins
O'Reilly Media; Published: 2005-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops:
Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tigerby Dave Taylor
O'Reilly Media; Published: 2005-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Learning the bash Shell: Unix Shell Programming (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))by Cameron Newham
O'Reilly Media; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.47
Price in other shops:
Mac OS X Internals: A Systems Approachby Amit Singh
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2006-06-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $58.99
Price in other shops:
Programming in Objective-C, Third Edition (Developer's Library)by Stephen G. Kochan
Addison-Wesley Professional; Published: 2011-06-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $27.99
Price in other shops:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard: The Missing Manualby David Pogue
Pogue Press; Published: 2009-10-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.94
Price in other shops:
Mac OS X Lion: The Missing Manualby David Pogue
Pogue Press; Published: 2011-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops:
MAC OS X UNIX Toolbox: 1000+ Commands for the Mac OS Xby Christopher Negus
Wiley; Published: 2009-03-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $17.31
Price in other shops:
A Practical Guide to UNIX for Mac OS X Usersby Mark G. Sobell, Peter Seebach
Prentice Hall; Published: 2005-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $25.00
Price in other shops:
The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hoodby Kirk McElhearn
Sybex; Published: 2005-12-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.00
Price in other shops: