New to UNIX -where to start?

[octavius]

For awhile now ive wantede to learn more about UNIX under OSX but never had time. I'm really interested in it and using the terminal but i dont know where to start.

I hear things about Fink and GIMP but i don't know if im capable yet of using powerful tools. Im willing to learn though and im not afraid to be overwhelmed.

Would it be a good idea to install Fink and the others..or should i wait.. im sure you guys get the newbie stuff all the time.

Can someone enlighten me on UNIX a bit and point me in the right direction?

thanks. -oct

[sao]

octavius,

Please read this thread, you will get a few pointers there:

http://forums.macosxhints.com/showth...&threadid=3586

Also, you can search for 'fink' or any subject you are interested, in both the Unix-beginners/general forums. There's lots of information readily available.

Read, study and when you feel confident to start, then go ahead and do it, if you make mistakes, don't worry, we all make mistakes, and let us know if we can help.


Cheers...

[mervTormel]

well, you don't need fink to learn about unix. you've got a fairly full complement of unix commands built right into OSX to keep you busy for a while. the BSD subsystem (the foundation of OSX's unix) is available in the shell.

perhaps start with a google for unix tutorials to get your legs:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&i...=unix+tutorial

explore the man pages for the man and apropos commands so that you can begin to explore other commands...

% man man
...

% man apropos
...

there is a lot to learn and the curve is high. but keep digging.

fink is a package management tool and software port effort. it supplements OSX with many ported software tools.

but acquiring some unix legs first will take you a long ways when approaching finking.

[mule]

since this is hard to answer ans there are about a million hits you would get from google, here are a few things, which I would recommend.

Since the sub layer of Mac OS X is a bit similar to BSD, especially FreeBSD, you can learn a lot by reading their "Handbook", you can find it on the freebsd website.

www.linuxdoc.org offers a lot of documentation concerning linux and thos tips do apply often not only to linux, but also other derivatives.

I hope that gives you a bit reading to do

-d

[mervTormel]

mule, those are good tips.

a lot of unix is derivative, so, in addition to digesting appropriate documentation and playing on the command line, one needs to become a bit of a translator so that the derivatives don't cause heartburn.

many of the unix idioms are consistant, with different semantics to get at them.

e.g., for the System V mutant of unix, you'll see that the ps command has a completely different battery of switches. so one must contextually grok what slice of info is being sought, and translate the switches to the BSD variant...

http://www.isu.edu/departments/comco...multitask.html

to list all processes in the long format

sysV:

% ps -ef

BSD:

% ps axl

so, if you see variant docs, don't get discouraged. try and get beyond the semantics to the crux of the matter.

--
"The crux of the biscuit is the apostrophe" --FZ

[Jacques]

I've heard Mac OS X Unleashed is an excellent resource, if you like the old-fashioned physical book-style text!

Here's a review of it:
Mac OS X Unleashed reviewed - from Applelinks

[hschickel]

As noted above, Mac OSX Unleashed is terrific. (First hand experience.)

Also, via O'Reilly:

The Mac Dev Center - follow the links

Learning Unix for Mac OSX - great first book

Learning the Unix Operating System, 5th Edition - another less specific great first book.

Hugh