Customer Reviews

The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood

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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.

Structured in a distinctive but helpful way, "The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood" is quite a solid introduction to the command line, a mechanism that not only speeds and simplifies many tasks but also lets you do a number of things unavailable under the GUI. Its 400+ pages, arranged fundamentally as a tutorial, are replete with basic steps and shortcuts alike. The book covers everything from Terminal ("gateway" to the command line) to the file system to text editing and printing; in the later chapters, it moves on to such relatively advanced topics as file compression and archiving, groups and permissions, networking, program and process management, system maintenance, and shell configuration. Interleaved between the chapters (and here is where the book's structure is distinctive) are sections devoted to key Unix concepts that recur to the point of transcending multiple chapters; these nine sections, referred to as Interludes, tackle things like command syntax, pathnames, redirection, the "open" command (more powerful than it may sound), wildcards, and ways of automating commands.

Besides obviously providing a nice treatment of the basics, the book offers plenty of advanced material for the experienced user. The index is nice to see and easy to use. Other nice touches are a command list, chapter summaries in the introduction, and an appendix with additional readings.

Allowing for a variety of problem areas, in large measure evidently outside the author's control, this is a book well worth reading and using. It is true that some of the editing errors are thoroughly confusing (references to subsequent material as supposedly already presented, references to misidentified chapters, related graphics positioned out of logical order, and so on); still, the book is redeemed by the readily understood and applied, comprehensive, and mostly well-organized content.

Chuck Brandstater

I found 2 chapters to be very useful, Chapter 12 on Working with Users, Groups and Permissions and Ch. 14 on Managing Programs and Processes. The remaining chapters are pretty much standard Unix commands; but, very well written for Unix novices. Overall the book is well written that I would use it as a Unix reference for commands that I am familiar with (example, didn't know ls -F would show me the directories with a slash).

OS X UNIX is amazingly friendly and accessible. Some people who had never used command line before, type commands and work with the operating system directly as a "cool guys" in movies! This book is very helpful and well written and it is serves as a very nice reference. If you really need the initial training I would say that "UNIX Essentials" DVD I found here on Amazon is a nice option. It is complete UNIX course recorded and this book and a video they contribute one another greatly. You improve the reading and by reading you improve what you have seen.
The book is very particular about the subjects that related to OS X and because there are some differences between OS X and other UNIXes it is nice to have a book that deals with it.

I've been a casual Unix user for years but have only recently started using Unix within Mac OS X. It's been a struggle for me to figure out how to edit my PATH in a way that would stick, so that the PATH would be correct when I start Terminal. This book had the answers to that dilemma! In addition, this book taught me several tricks that I've seen experienced Unix users utilize. So now I can adopt those same time and memory saving approaches. I'm thrilled with this book!

Hi all, I have a pleasure in letting you know that I got my book as I expected. My suggestion is it would be nice if an ebook of this kind can be developed so as customers that bought it can download for an option to read from the iPad or Kindle.