The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 438 pages
• Published by: Sybex December 10, 2005
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0782143547
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0782143546
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 1.7 pounds

Product Description
The Mac command line offers a faster, easier way to accomplish many tasks. It's also the medium for many commands that aren't accessible using the GUI. The Mac OS X Command Line is a clear, concise, tutorial-style introduction to all the major functionality provided by the command line. It's also packed with information the experienced users need, including little-known shortcuts and several chapters devoted to advanced topics. This is a book to get you started, but also a book you won’t soon outgrow.

Back Cover Copy
Work More Quickly and Easily—and Learn Some New Tricks
The Mac command line offers a faster, easier way to accomplish many tasks. It's also the medium for many commands that aren't accessible using the GUI. The Mac OS X Command Line is a clear, concise, tutorial-style introduction to all the major functionality provided by the command line. It's also packed with information the experienced users need, including little-known shortcuts and several chapters devoted to advanced topics. This is a book to get you started, but also a book you won’t soon outgrow.

Coverage includes:

• Using Terminal, the gateway to the command line
• Making Terminal easier to use with shortcuts
• Configuring your shell: bash and tcsh
• Navigating your file system in Terminal
• Moving and copying files from the command line
• Accessing hidden files with Terminal
• Editing configuration files with command-line text editor
• Finding any kind of file or content using simple commands
• Printing from the command line
• Archiving, compressing, and decompressing files
• Managing users, groups, and permissions
• Accessing network volumes and the Internet using simple commands
• Managing programs and processes
• Using system maintenance commands

Reader Reviews
As anyone who's used one of Kirk McElhearn's other books on the Mac OS will be unsurprised to hear, I found this book very easy to follow -- so easy in fact that I found I could skip the first few chapters. That's probably because I'm not a complete command-line virgin (I remember the days before Windows and the first Mac OS, and as a web designer I've done a bit of tinkering in Unix on some of the web servers I use) but even if you are, from my impression of the first chapters, this book can tell you everything you need to know to start using the command line. The book is designed as a chapter-by-chapter tutorial, teaching you the things you need to know in a methodical order, but it contains enough information, and has a good enough index, to be used as your main reference for the command line once you've mastered the basics. My only criticism would be that while it tells you how to do all sorts of useful things, it doesn't have enough real-world, detailed examples of the kind of uses you could put your new knowledge to -- I was expecting some kind of 'case studies' feature, giving real examples of how to use commands you've just learned to automate your back-up procedures, for example. The information's all in there, but to some extent you have to work out what you can do with it for yourself. But I guess that's only a minor criticism -- you probably wouldn't read this book in the first place if you didn't have some idea of the kind of thing you can do with the command line. So all in all, it's a great starting point, and I can see that in the future I'm going to find it a valuable reference.