Mac Unix resources

On Fri, 03 Mar 2006 10:04:13 -0500, Howard C. Berkowitz <hcb RemoveThis @gettcomm.com> wrote:
> Is there a resource, preferably online, that explains the relationship
> of Mac user files, startups, etc., to the UNIX filesystem? I'm
> reasonably experienced with several *NIX flavors, but I am not easily
> finding correspondences.

Somewhere around here I've got an OReilley book which is something like
"MacOSX for Unix admins". Can't find it but it's up to their normal
standards, if a bit dated.

> For example, if I wanted to write scripts to do tar backups, I'm not
> sure I always can find the root node of common (e.g., Applications)
> directories, not at the individual user levels.

Start at / and /Applications is right there. The user also has
~/Applications in their home account. /etc, /usr, and the usual are
where you'd expect them.

> This feels like a dumb question, but in OS X, did they stop having two
> forks for each file, and there is now only one file to copy?

I haven't run into that but I never dealt with Mac before it went to
unix, so I'll go out on a limb and guess "no".
 >> Stay informed about: Mac Unix resources 

In article <du9p3b$v8k$1@mailhub227.itcs.purdue.edu>, Dave Seaman
<dseaman.DeleteThis@no.such.host> wrote:

> Some Unix
> tools such as mv and cp have been modified in Tiger to be
> resource-fork-aware, but it appears that tar is not one of them.

Tiger's tar _is_ resource-fork-aware. However, if you install fink, it
may install its own tar, which is not resource-safe.
 >> Stay informed about: Mac Unix resources 

"Howard C. Berkowitz" <hcb.TakeThisOut@gettcomm.com> writes:
>
> Is there a resource, preferably online, that explains the relationship
> of Mac user files, startups, etc., to the UNIX filesystem?

HFS and HFS+ are not UNIX systems. They are the file systems used by
classic MacOS, extended in order to provide UNIX functionality on OS X.

The startup system is pretty different from classical UNIX. There are
the usual /etc/rc scripts, but other mechanisms (like Launch Services on
Tiger) are preferable.

> For example, if I wanted to write scripts to do tar backups, I'm not
> sure I always can find the root node of common (e.g., Applications)
> directories, not at the individual user levels.

Each drive icon on the desktop is a mounted volume. The startup volume
is mounted as root. The rest are mounted as /Volumes/<drive_name>. Not
all folders appear in the Finder. Drop to a shell prompt if you want to
see the rest.

> This feels like a dumb question, but in OS X, did they stop having two
> forks for each file, and there is now only one file to copy?

Nope. The resource fork and Finder info are quite alive and well.
Mac-aware applications (including the UNIX command-line tools on Tiger,
but not on prior releases of Mac OS X) will be able to read/write/copy
this info. Other programs may not be able to.

-- David
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On 2006-03-11, David C. <shamino.TakeThisOut@techie.com> wrote:
> Nope. The resource fork and Finder info are quite alive and well.

They're not dead yet, but they're also not at all well. Resource forks
are only suppported for the small number of legacy applications that
depend on them. Maybe the switch to intel will finally finish the job.
 >> Stay informed about: Mac Unix resources 

In article <FYednUBkr6sZeI_ZnZ2dnUVZ_v-dnZ2d.DeleteThis@comcast.com>, D P Schreber
<schreberdp.DeleteThis@rayban.net> wrote:

> On 2006-03-11, David C. <shamino.DeleteThis@techie.com> wrote:
> > Nope. The resource fork and Finder info are quite alive and well.
>
> They're not dead yet, but they're also not at all well. Resource forks
> are only suppported for the small number of legacy applications that
> depend on them. Maybe the switch to intel will finally finish the job.

It is not only legacy applications that use resource forks. For
example, text clippings [select text; drag it to the desktop; the
resulting file is a text clipping] are stored in the resource fork.
That might be considered "legacy" since the concept originated well
before OS X, but it is supported by the OS X Finder.

But here is an example that is unique to OS X: Select a file; open 'Get
Info'; set 'Open With:' to a different application than the default for
that file type. The information about which file to use is stored in
the resource fork. A resource fork is added if necessary.
 >> Stay informed about: Mac Unix resources