Learning Unix for Mac OS X

By Dave Taylor, Brian Jepson, Grace Todino, et al.

Book Overview

Elegant, sleek, powerful, and stable, Mac OS X has delighted many a loyal Mac user, and gone one step further--it's turned them into Unix users, too. Perhaps you're already familiar with Unix, just not on the Mac. Or perhaps you opened your Utilities folder, spotted the Terminal icon and double-clicked on it just to see what it does. Suddenly faced with a command line interface, you probably asked what does it mean, and the more pressing question, why on earth would you ever want to venture into this seemingly user-unfriendly territory?The new edition of "Learning Unix for Mac OS X" answers these questions and more. This compact book provides a user-friendly tour of your Mac's Unix base. As you explore Terminal and familiarize yourself with the command line, you'll also learn about the hundreds of Unix programs that come with your Mac and begin to understand the power and flexibility of Unix. And if Unix isn't new to you, you'll discover how it translates into this new Mac incarnation. Updated to cover Jaguar (Mac OS X, 10.2), this book will keep you current with the latest features of your Mac.The book begins with a quick but in-depth introduction to Terminal and the command line interface. After learning about launching and configuring the Terminal application, you'll find out how to manage, create, edit, and transfer files. You'll find all the common commands simply explained with accompanying examples, exercises, and opportunities for experimentation. There are even problem checklists to help you along the way if you get stuck. You'll learn how to: Customize your shell environmentManage files and directoriesSuccessfully print from the Unix command lineEdit and create files with the vi editorPerform remote loginsAccess Internet functionsUnderstand pipes and filtersUse background processingUse Fink, an easy way to install open source Unix software on Mac OS XWith Terminal, you'll access areas of your Mac that you just can't get to from the desktop. You may find yourself turning to Terminal for greater efficiency on a particular task or to use one of the thousands of open source programs that are now available to you. Unix continues to thrive as an operating system because of its power, flexibility, and simplicity, and the vast community that supports it. "Learning Unix for Mac OS X," Second Edition can be your key to understanding all of it.The book has been reviewed by Apple for technological accuracy and brandishes the Apple Development Connection (ADC) logo. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596004702
• ISBN13: 9780596004705
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 158 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Very nice and complete introduction book

Hey guys, it is not a book for gurus it is for learners and for beginners. As such this book is completely up-to the task and it is well written and easy to follow. It is never easy task to learn new things and studying UNIX isn't exception. This book is very nicely, didactically organized and facilitates the transition from subject to subject. I used this book and Linux and UNIX for a beginner training suite, 4DVDs + 2CDs...

A Great Starting Point

In the vast world of Linux/UNIX, I found it hard to know where to start learning. I figured that since I knew a significant amount about OS X that this book might make for a good beginning level book. I was so right. For someone who knows absolutely nothing about UNIX commands, this book is for you. You will learn the absolute basics and nothing more. Keep that in mind: you will not learn anything beyond the basics. ...

An excellent starting point for Unix novices

I have recently fallen in love with Macs. I had been a Windows developer for 15 years. Occasionally I have had to poke around on the Solaris command line at work, but I am a Unix newbie. This book does a great job of laying out the basics of Unix for people who have little or no Unix experience. This book does not provide a "quick start". It does not go into excessive depth on Unix. But it does provide fundamental building...

A beginners guide to getting into UNIX

I am not sure what the other posters thought but this book simply brought you into the world of UNIX. For some reason they thought they were going to learn in-depth UNIX in 150 pages. "Learning UNIX for OS X" is just a small step into learning the command line interface in Mac OS X. This book does not show you architecture of the OS nor advanced commands, Mac OS X Unleashed goes over these in-depth. OR if you want to master...

A great, succinct book

This is a terrific introduction to the Unix underneath Mac OS X from a couple of authors that know Unix inside-out. With coverage of the Terminal app, shell scripting, aliases, changing your command prompt, how to launch Aqua apps from the command line, and much, much more, I think it's a great addition to your Mac OS X library.It is less than 200 pages, but, frankly, I found this refreshing, given that I have lots of 700-900...