Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks

by Ernest Rothman, and Brian Jepson
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (June 1, 2005)
ISBN: 0596009127

If you're one of the many Unix developers drawn to Mac OS X for its Unix core, you'll find yourself in surprisingly unfamiliar territory. Unix and Mac OS X are kissing cousins, but there are enough pitfalls and minefields in going from one to another that even a Unix guru can stumble, and most guides to Mac OS X are written for Mac aficionados. For a Unix developer, approaching Tiger from the Mac side is a bit like learning Russian by reading the Russian side of a Russian-English dictionary. Fortunately, O'Reilly has been the Unix authority for over 25 years, and in Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks, that depth of understanding shows.

This is the book for Mac command-line fans. Completely revised and updated to cover Mac OS X Tiger, this new edition helps you quickly and painlessly get acclimated with Tiger's familiar-yet foreign-Unix environment. Topics include:

• Using the Terminal and understanding how it differs from an xterm
• Using Directory Services, Open Directory (LDAP), and NetInfo
• Compiling code with GCC 3
• Library linking and porting Unix software
• Creating and installing packages with Fink
• Using DarwinPorts
• Search through metadata with Spotlight's command-line utilities
• Building the Darwin kernel
• Running X Windows on top of Mac OS X, or better yet, run Mac OS X on a Windows machine with PearPC!

Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks is the ideal survival guide for taming the Unix side of Tiger. If you're a Unix geek with an interest in Mac OS X, you'll find this clear, concise book invaluable.

Media Reviews

"If you're reading this review, you should get your own copy of Mac OS X Tiger for Unix Geeks...These authors have plenty to tell migrants from Unix for whom Mac OS is new territory. Apart from its "rightness" in selection of topics, I see the book's narrative high point as Part III, Working with Packages. While all the information in the book can, to the best of my knowledge, be found somewhere else, the book's value is in its coherent and authoritative explanations that hit the heart of what we working developers want to know. OS X's package systems are particularly confusing, but Jepson and Rothman make the essentials clear."

- Cameron Laird, UnixReview, August 2005

"There are enough differences between OS X and other flavors of *nix that this book is easily worth the cost. From how to add startup items, to enabling existing Unix services, to dual-booting, to building packages, etc etc etc. I'm sure some people will find things 'missing' or not explained with enough detail, but I think it's covers just about everything most 'Unix Geeks' will be interested in to familiarize themselves with the Mac's take on Unix."

- Eric Wuehler, Amazon.com review, June 2005

"So what are you waiting for? Become a SuperMacGeek by using this book. It really does a great job demystifying the FreeBSD/Darwin side of Mac OS X."

- Robert Pritchett, MacCompanion, July 2005