Running Mac OS X Tiger

Running Mac OS X Tiger

Released December 2005
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596009137

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Book description

Running Mac OS X Tiger is the ideal resource for power users and system administrators like you who want to tweak Tiger, the new release of Mac OS X, to run faster, better, or just differently.

If you areready to dig deep into your Mac, this book expertly guides you to the core of Mac OS X. It helps you understand the inner workings of the operating system so you can know how to get the most out of it. And it gives you countless ideas--and step-by-step instruction--for customizing and revving up Tiger to your specific needs and your liking.

Completely revised and updated for Mac OS X Tiger, Running Mac OS X Tiger covers all the new features and functionality of Tiger. You can count on authors Jason Deraleau and James Duncan Davidson to give what you need--and not bother with what you don't. They don't spend time on Finder tips and keyboard shortcuts; they focus on showing you what makes a Mac tick and, more importantly, how you can make it tick just the way you want it to.

Easy to follow and intuitively organized, Running Mac OS X Tiger is divided into three parts: "Getting Started" introduces Mac OS X and explains how it's put together and why it works; "Administration Essentials" gives you the tools you need to examine how your system is running and adjust all the knobs behind its operation; and "Networking and Network Services" covers the ways Mac OS X interfaces with the world around it, including wireless and spontaneous networking. Developer Tools for Mac OS X, including Xcode, are discussed throughout the book as appropriate.

For the growing number of intermediate to advanced users who are ready and eager to customize Mac OS X, Running Mac OS X Tiger delivers everything you need to become master of your Mac.

Table of contents

  1. Running Mac OS X Tiger
    1. Preface
      1. Audience
      2. How This Book Is Organized
      3. How to Use This Book
      4. Compatibility
      5. Conventions Used in This Book
      6. Using Code Examples
      7. Safari® Enabled
      8. How to Contact Us
      9. Acknowledgments
      10. Acknowledgments from the First Edition
    2. 1. Where It All Came From
      1. The Classic Mac OS
      2. System 7
      3. Copland
      4. NEXTSTEP
      5. Rhapsody
      6. Continued Development of the Classic Mac OS
        1. The Introduction of the iApps
      7. Mac OS X 10.0
        1. Darwin and Open Source
        2. Developer Tools
        3. Command-Line Access
      8. Mac OS X 10.1
      9. Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar
      10. Mac OS X Panther
      11. Mac OS X Tiger
      12. What Does the Future Hold?
    3. 2. Installing the System and Software
      1. Preparing to Install Tiger
        1. Backing Up Your Life
          1. Where to back up
          2. What to back up
        2. Tips for Upgrading
      2. Installing Tiger
        1. Partitioning Your Hard Drive
        2. Step-by-Step Installation
        3. Configuring the System
      3. The Software of Mac OS X
        1. Software Installers
          1. Drag-and-drop install
          2. Mac OS X’s Installer
          3. Custom installers
        2. Installing Unix Software
          1. DarwinPorts
          2. Fink
          3. Compiling Unix software
      4. Staying Up-to-Date
        1. Mac OS X’s Software Update
        2. Updating Other Software
      5. Further Explorations
    4. 3. Lay of the Land
      1. The World’s Most Advanced Operating System
        1. Darwin
        2. Core Foundation
        3. Application and Multimedia Services
        4. Application Environments
        5. Aqua
      2. Filesystem Hierarchy
        1. The Filesystem Through the Finder
        2. The Filesystem Under the Hood
          1. More hidden files
          2. Opening hidden directories in the Finder
      3. The Many Roots of the Finder
        1. The Home Folder
        2. The Command-Line View of a Home Folder
      4. Filesystem Domains
      5. The Library
      6. Bundles
      7. Further Explorations
    5. 4. The Terminal and Shell
      1. Terminal Overview
        1. Essential Filesystem Commands
          1. Getting around the filesystem
          2. Viewing a directory’s contents
          3. Viewing a file’s contents
          4. Working with files and directories
        2. Wildcards
        3. Terminal User Interface
      2. Configuring and Using bash
        1. Environment Variables
        2. Configuration Files
        3. Aliases
        4. History
        5. Redirecting Output
        6. Loops
      3. Using Other Shells
        1. Changing the Shell
      4. Getting Help
        1. Other Places to Find Help
      5. Editing Text Files
        1. nano
        2. vi and Emacs
      6. Further Explorations
    6. 5. System Startup and Login
      1. The Hardware Boot Process
        1. Taking a Peek at Open Firmware
        2. Updating Firmware
        3. Accessing Open Firmware
        4. Setting the Boot Disk
          1. Blessed system disk
        5. Changing the Boot Disk at Boot Time
        6. Locking Down Open Firmware
      2. The Operating System Boot Process
        1. Launch Control
          1. Daemons and agents
          2. Inside a launchd property list file
          3. Working with launchd services
        2. SystemStarter
          1. The hostconfig file
          2. Anatomy of a startup item
          3. Starting and stopping startup items
        3. Booting into Safe Mode
      3. Logging In
        1. User Authentication
        2. Login Items
        3. Customizing the Login Screen
      4. Logging Out
      5. Shutting Down the System
      6. Energy Preferences
        1. Sleep
        2. Scheduling
      7. Further Explorations
    7. 6. Users and Groups
      1. What Is a User Anyway?
        1. Administrative Users
      2. Managing Users
        1. Managing Users with the Accounts Panel
          1. Creating a user
          2. Deleting a user
          3. Parental Controls
      3. Nonhuman Users
        1. The Root User
          1. Enabling the root user
      4. Further Explorations
    8. 7. Open Directory
      1. Open Directory in Action
      2. Directory Services Defined
        1. Kinds of Directory Information
        2. Sources of Directory Information
          1. Sources of configuration information
          2. Sources of authentication information
          3. Sources of discovered services
      3. Directory Domains
      4. The Local Domain and NetInfo
        1. Examining NetInfo Data with NetInfo Manager
          1. Managing user information
          2. Managing group information
          3. Creating a nonhuman user
      5. Configuring Shared Domains
        1. Configuring Open Directory Sources
          1. Using Mac OS X Server’s Open Directory Server
          2. Using other LDAP servers
          3. Configuring Active Directory domain servers
          4. Configuring NetInfo-based domain servers
          5. Configuring NIS domain servers
        2. Configuring Shared Domain Authentication
        3. Configuring Shared Domain Contacts
      6. Kerberos and Single Sign-on
      7. Command-Line Open Directory Tools
        1. Backing Up and Restoring a NetInfo Database
        2. Using dscl
        3. nicl
        4. nidump
        5. niload
      8. Further Explorations
    9. 8. Files and Permissions
      1. Finding Files
        1. Finding Files on the Command Line
          1. find
          2. locate
          3. grep
          4. mdfind
      2. Owners and Access
        1. The Sticky Bit
        2. Set UID and Set GID
        3. Changing File Ownership and Permissions
          1. chown
          2. chmod
        4. Access Control Lists
          1. Access Control Entries
          2. Working with Access Control Lists
        5. Other Permission Types
          1. BSD file flags
          2. HFS+ Attributes
      3. Metadata and File Attributes
        1. Spotlight
        2. Type and Creator Codes
      4. Further Explorations
    10. 9. Disks and Filesystems
      1. Filesystems
        1. The Mac OS Extended Filesystem (HFS+)
          1. Journaling
          2. Fragmentation
        2. Other Supported Filesystems
      2. Network-Based Filesystems
        1. Mounting a Network Filesystem
        2. Sharing a Network Filesystem
          1. Sharing to Internet users
          2. Sharing to web users
          3. Sharing to local network users
          4. Sharing to Mac clients
          5. Sharing to Windows clients
      3. Disk Utility
        1. Examining a Disk
        2. Verifying and Repairing Disk Permissions
        3. Verifying and Repairing Disks
      4. Erasing and Formatting Disks
      5. Partitioning Disks
        1. Adding a Disk Drive
      6. RAID
      7. Disk Images
        1. Types of Disk Images
          1. Encryption and disk images
        2. Working with Disk Images on the Command Line
        3. Creating a New Disk Image
        4. Creating a Disk Image from a Folder
        5. Creating a Disk Image from a Device
        6. Converting a Disk Image
        7. Burning a Disk Image to CD or DVD
        8. Restoring a Disk Image to a Drive
        9. Moving the Contents of One Drive to Another
      8. Further Explorations
    11. 10. Printing
      1. Print System Overview
      2. Managing Printers
      3. Adding and Configuring Printers
        1. Determining IP-Based Print Queue Names
        2. Vendor-Specific Connections
        3. Faxing
      4. Anatomy of a Print Job
        1. Saving Print Settings
        2. The Simplified Print Panel
      5. PDF Services
      6. Printing from the Command Line
        1. Working with PostScript
        2. Command-Line Printing to AppleTalk-Based Printers
      7. Print Sharing
        1. Connecting to the Shared Printers
          1. Connecting from a Windows machine
          2. Connecting from a Unix client
      8. Further Explorations
    12. 11. Networking
      1. The Internet Protocol
        1. Network Addressing and Masks
        2. Examining Network Settings
          1. Looking at addresses on the local network
      2. Configuring IP Addresses
        1. Manually Configuring IP Information
      3. Naming and DNS
        1. Looking up DNS Information
        2. Multicast DNS
        3. Ports and Services
      4. Private Networks and NAT
      5. Routing
      6. Active Network Connections
      7. AppleTalk
      8. Locations
      9. Using a Dial-Up Connection
      10. FireWire Networking
      11. Virtual Private Networks
      12. Firewalls
      13. Internet Connection Sharing
      14. Further Explorations
    13. 12. Monitoring the System
      1. About This Mac
      2. System Profiler
        1. Creating a System Profile Report
          1. System Profiler on the command line
      3. Monitoring System Activity
        1. Console
        2. Activity Monitor
          1. Interpreting process information
          2. Sampling an application
        3. Monitoring Processes from the Command Line
          1. Working with logfiles
          2. Finding open files
      4. Monitoring Users
      5. Working with Processes
        1. Killing Processes
          1. Force Quit
          2. Using the Activity Monitor
          3. Using the command line
      6. Remote Maintenance
        1. Virtual Network Computing
          1. Enabling the VNC server
          2. Connecting to VNC
        2. The Secure Shell
      7. Further Explorations
    14. 13. Automating Tasks
      1. The Importance of Time
      2. Using iCal to Schedule Tasks
      3. cron
        1. The System crontab File
        2. The User crontab
          1. Editing a user crontab
          2. Additional configuration settings
          3. Sleep and cron
      4. Automator
        1. Creating Workflows
        2. Running Workflows
        3. PDF Services
      5. Scripting
        1. Scripting Languages
        2. Essential Programming Concepts
        3. Shell Scripting
          1. A simple script
          2. Tying in variables
          3. Conditionals in bash
          4. Send in the loops
          5. Interacting with the user
          6. Sample scripts
        4. AppleScript
          1. Another simple script
          2. Variables: AppleScript style
          3. AppleScript conditionals
          4. Looping in AppleScript
          5. User interaction
          6. Sample scripts
        5. Bridging the Gap
      6. Further Explorations
    15. 14. Preferences and Defaults
      1. Property Lists
      2. Where Preferences Are Stored
        1. Host-Based Preferences
        2. Global Preferences
        3. Non-Defaults-Based Preferences
      3. Reading and Writing Preferences
        1. Property List Editor
        2. The defaults Command-Line Tool
          1. Reading preferences
          2. Writing preferences
          3. Reading and writing host-specific preferences
          4. Reading and writing global preferences
        3. Using TextEdit
      4. Determining Preference Keys
      5. Further Explorations
    16. A. Boot Command Keys
    17. B. Other Sources of Information
      1. Books
        1. User and Administrator Focus
        2. Developer Focus
      2. Magazines
      3. Mailing Lists
        1. Apple-Run Mailing Lists
        2. Omni Group’s Mailing Lists
      4. Web Sites
        1. Apple Sites
        2. Developer Sites
        3. Discussions and News
        4. Rumor Sites
        5. Software
        6. Tips, Tricks, and Advice
    18. Index
    19. Colophon

Product information

  • Title: Running Mac OS X Tiger
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: December 2005
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596009137