Mac OS X in a Nutshell

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the masses who helped make the book possible, and also would like to thank the authors of other O’Reilly books, from which some portions of this book were derived; including:

• AppleScript in a Nutshell (Bruce M. Perry)

• CVS Pocket Reference (Gregor N. Purdy)

• Essential System Administration (Æleen Frisch)

• Linux in a Nutshell (Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour, Stephen Figgins, and Jessica P. Hekman)

• Mac OS X Pocket Guide (Chuck Toporek)

• Mac OS X for Unix Geeks (Brian Jepson and Ernest E. Rothman)

• DNS & BIND (Paul Albitz and Cricket Liu)

• SSH, The Secure Shell: The Definitive Guide (Daniel J. Barrett and Richard E. Silverman)

• Unix in a Nutshell (Arnold Robbins)

Acknowledgments for Jason McIntosh

Chuck Toporek provided great guidance and insight as an editor, and knew when to step in and help write once my life changed in unexpected ways (i.e., I suddenly stopped being unemployed); this book is much better for his active efforts. Chris Stone took on the command reference chapter before any of us realized the magnitude of that task, and yet he and his cohorts did a smashing job. I mean, just look at that thing.

John Keimel and Andrew “Zarf” Plotkin tech reviewed this book. Jim Troutman and Andy Turner at Arcus Digital in Waterville, Maine hosted my email, web, and CVS server, which was crucial to this project (and my life). They also tossed me some freelance programming jobs to gnaw on, and pitched in with tech reviewing. Karl von Laudermann and Derek Lichter assisted with last-minute fact-checking. The filler text in several examples is excerpted from Erik T. Ray’s The Lambda Expressway and used with permission.

Derrick Story at the O’Reilly Network let me write some Mac OS X articles for macdevcenter.com, helping me stave off financial ruin until Erik Brauner and the Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School hired me into a wonderful job midway through this book’s production. They showed great patience with me as I pulled odd and antisocial office hours in order to complete the book on time.

Reprising their roles from my work on Perl & XML (with Erik T. Ray, published by O’Reilly & Associates, 2002), Julia “Cthulhia” Tenney acted as my personal principal gadfly, and the 1369 Coffee House in Cambridge and the Diesel Cafe in Somerville again served as my alternate offices.

Mary Agner, Denis Moskowitz, and the whole regular crowd at the House of Roses game nights made sure I got my biweekly ration of sanity-maintaining game-playing.

My housemates Melissa Kibbe and Noah Meyerhans (and, before them, Charles Peterman and Carla Schack) continually encouraged me to hurry up and finish the book, if only so I’d stop moping about it.

If you’ve made a web page (or even posted to a mailing list) about Mac OS X, I’ve probably read it and used its information somehow. Thanks.

Mike Scott at the University of Maine first introduced me to Macintosh computers back when System 7 was brand new. Andy England of Mac Advantage in Bangor and Jeff Wheeler of the Town of Hermon gave me my first Mac-centric, post-college jobs. Jason Lavoie and Andy Turner of the late Maine InternetWorks got me into Unix (by way of Linux and Perl) with my first programming job. O’Reilly & Associates then hired me, after which they unhired me, but not before getting me irrevocably entangled with technical writing. This is more or less how I got here.

I did all my work on this book on my iBook running Mac OS X. The text is courtesy the Emacs text editor, working in raw DocBook XML, and the screen shots come from Apple’s Grab application. The Omni Group’s OmniOutliner application helped me organize my thoughts and notes for every chapter I wrote.

All remaining thanks go to my parents Dorothy and Richard, my brothers Peter and Ricky, my aunt Jan, and all of my friends both local and remote, whose network of love and support I relied heavily upon throughout this project, and upon which I shall no doubt continue to draw for whatever silly thing I do next. Yay!

Acknowledgments for Chuck Toporek

Also acting as editor for the book, I would like to first thank Jason for taking on this beastly project. Mac OS X is a complex operating system, requiring a broad range of knowledge and experience. Jason had all the geeky qualities needed for someone to write Mac OS X in a Nutshell.

So, why did the editor get involved as a coauthor, you ask? Well, after Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) in May, 2002, a lot of things changed. Jason was working ahead on some of the more complex chapters in the book, and by the time he was given access to a prerelease of Jaguar, I was tasked with editing and rewriting a lot of the earlier material Jason had written based on Mac OS X 10.1.x. With pressure looming to make the book right and to get it out within a reasonable time after Jaguar officially released, I too jumped in.

Next, I have to thank my wife Kellie Robinson for putting up with her “geek” of a husband while I took on yet another project. My DIY attitude often gets me in trouble, and you’d think that after having spent four years in the U.S. Navy, I would have learned that “NAVY” stands for “Never Again Volunteer Yourself”—but I didn’t. Thanks, Kellie, for putting up with the long nights at the air-conditioned Starbuck’s in Arlington Center, for my long nights and weekends of working at home, and for supporting me when I needed it. Thanks, too, to Max, our insane kitty, for occasionally sitting on my laptop’s keyboard in his constant quest for affection.

Thanks to the many people at O’Reilly for their involvement in this project, including David Chu, my faithful editorial assistant, Claire Cloutier and Mary Brady in production, and Julie Hawks for her most-excellent and masterful indexing skills. We also owe quite a bit of thanks to Chris Stone, Scott Gever, Dave Carrano, and David Brickner for jumping in and taking on the un-Godly task of certifying the Unix command reference. Other folks here who deserve some level of recognition include Lorrie LeJeune for drawing Vinny, the dog on the cover of this book and the Mac OS X Pocket Guide, Erik Ray, Lenny Meullner, Joe Wizda, Mike Sierra, Emma Colby, Ellie V., David Futato, Linda Mui and Robert Denn for walks to The Spa, and last but not least, Paula Ferguson, for giving me a much-needed pep talk after a particularly hard editorial group meeting.

Thanks to our great friends at Apple Computer, not only for giving us a killer operating system to work with, but also for their assistance, guidance, and input on some of the technical details we couldn’t find answers to.

And last, but not least, I’d like to thank Tim O’Reilly for getting “The Mac Religion,” backing all the work I’m doing, and for making O’Reilly a truly awesome place to work.

Acknowledgments for Chris Stone

The Unix Command Reference (Chapter 25) couldn’t have been completed without the help and support of a lot of great people. For helping with the writing, I can’t thank the contributors Scott Gever, Dave Carrano, Leon Towns-von Stauber, and David Brickner enough. Thanks also to Bob Amen, Fred Coffman, Brian Jepson, and David Lents for their technical expertise. Thanks to Chuck, Laurie, Derrick, Bob, CJ, and the other IS folks — Marlene, Larry, and Kirk — for helping to make it all work out. Thanks and apologies to my friends and family, who kindly allowed me to cancel plans: Craig, Junichi, Takashi, Okaasan, Fumiko-san, Mom, Dad, and of course Miho, Andy, and J.J.