Mac® Security Bible

23.5. Baseline

This next program is quite different from all the others discussed in this chapter. Baseline, from MildMannered Industries (www.mildmanneredindustries.com/baseline/), isn't open source or free (it costs $20), but it was designed from the ground up exclusively for Mac OS X. As a result, it has a lovely, easy-to-understand user interface, requires no compilation or other command-line procedures, and requires no installation. It doesn't offer (or require) client-server operation or built-in scheduling, but it can be automated with AppleScript if you want. For individual users — particularly those without advanced technical skills — Baseline offers the most accessible way to track file integrity.

When you launch Baseline, your local volumes appear in a list on the left. Before you can do anything else, you must perform a complete scan on a volume in order to establish the eponymous baseline. To do this, click the Scan or Rescan button on the toolbar. Baseline scans your disk and then displays a graphical TreeMap view, as shown in Figure 23.1, with larger files taking up larger blocks. Hover over any block with your mouse, and Baseline displays the name and size of that file. You can then store this baseline to use for future comparisons.

NOTE

Baseline works only with entire volumes; you can't search only selected folders or exclude folders.

When you do a future scan (for example, on a daily basis or after installing new software), Baseline's TreeMap view highlights ...