Chapter 2. New to Mac OS X?
If you're like most UNIX geeks, you probably want to find the command line on your new MacBook Pro or iMac or Mac server and start figuring things out. Although there's nothing wrong with that approach, it might be good to slow down a bit and figure out the differences between the flavor of BSD UNIX on Mac OS X and other flavors of UNIX you've used in the past.
For most of you, there won't be much of a difference. For some, there will be one or two things that have changed that you'll absolutely love. For others, there will be a whole bunch of things that will take getting used to—but it is hoped that you'll learn to love the changes.
The goal of this chapter is very simple: to provide you with a Cook's tour of UNIX on Mac OS X. By the end of the chapter, you should be familiar with your environment, and we'll take some time along the way to make some customizations and additions that will make you more productive.
What Is Mac OS X UNIX?
Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is marketed as an "Open Brand UNIX 03 Registered Product, conforming to the SUSv3 and POSIX 1003.1 specification for the C API, Shell Utilities, and Threads." What this means in layman's terms is that Leopard can compile and run all existing UNIX code.
Furthermore, Leopard supports both 64- and 32-bit applications on the same ...
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