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Good Books on Darwin UNIX? (OS X)

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 6:32 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I want to learn and understand how OS X sits on top of Darwin UNIX on my Mac. As in, I'd like to know how to do most of the things I can do with the GUI by using the command line instead (changing stuff in system preferences, installing & removing apps, adding users etc etc) so that things can be done remotely. I've changed preferences etc using "defaults write" before but only by blindly following tutorials... I'd like to be able to make educated guesses myself :(

I'm quite up on Linux server administration so there are HUGE similarities but then on the same token there are big differences. I've searched and searched for books which deal with Darwin as a pure UNIX system but I just can't find any that aren't aimed at Desktop users.... they all talk about doing things through the GUI.

Anybody a bit of OS X/UNIX geek who can recommend any good books on the subject? :)

EDIT | Haha, but how cool is this? :P I'm abusing my old (unusued, but still not deleted) VDS server by installing Debian Sarge+Gnome o it then X11 forwarding the desktop to my Mac :)

Debian Sarge/Gnome running remotely (fullscreen) on a Mac: http://w3style.co.uk/~d11wtq/deb-remote.jpg

I do find it quite amusing how even though it *is* Gnome running through X11 on OS X, it still has the OS X traffic lights at the top left of all the windows :lol:

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 6:02 am
by Chris Corbyn
Even just this simple list of exclusive commands gave me a good nudge to start exploring :)

EDIT | Finally, a Book! http://www.samspublishing.com/library/l ... ashed&rl=1

Still got some unanswered questions though:

1. So I know how to change passwords, change permissions etc (standard *nix) -- but how the *"%$ do I create new users by command line?
2. I've been shown how to install .pkg and .mkpg files by command line with "installer" -- but how do I remove them again?
3. How do I configure a wireless network?
4. If I mount a .dmg image, can I safely just copy its contents to /Applications as-is?

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 9:08 am
by jyhm
Have you tried macosx or macosxhints ? People at these forums could probably lead you in the right direction.

I've also looked at user book lists on amazon.com. I would like to learn more to, in order to develop little free programs under GNU like widgets or do dads to download from my site.

I like free stuff! :D