Unix Newbie

[Ryan Schmidt]

Sending this back to the list. Please remember to use Reply All so  
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On Feb 11, 2008, at 21:49, Esteban Barahona wrote:

> El feb 11, 2551 BE, a las 16:43, Ryan Schmidt escribió:
>
>> On Feb 11, 2008, at 16:33, Peter Hindrichs wrote:
>>
>>> On 11-Feb-08, at 5:19 PM, Ryan Schmidt wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Feb 11, 2008, at 16:07, Peter Hindrichs wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I have followed all the recommendations in getting ready to use  
>>>>> ports. I have Xtools 3.0, X11, (with the latest version 2.1.3)  
>>>>> and downloaded Macports 1.6.0. I have also read that there is  
>>>>> an issue with 1.6.0 in setting up the .profile, my question is  
>>>>> that I don't know where to go from here, I clearly don't have  
>>>>> the right path setup, and I am not sure how to do that.
>>>>> Here is what I get if I input "env"
>>>>>
>>>>> (...)
>>>>>
>>>>> If someone would be so kind as to give me a little time and  
>>>>> explanation how I do this, and or direct me to some basic Unix  
>>>>> file changing info I would be very appreciative.
>>>>
>>>> See the Guide:
>>>>
>>>> http://guide.macports.org/#installing.shell
>>>>
>>>> Or my recent message to this list:
>>>>
>>>> http://lists.macosforge.org/pipermail/macports-users/2008- 
>>>> February/008893.html
>>>
>>> Yes I have read all that, my question is more basic, do I just  
>>> say type  "sudo pico"  and then add that line  "PATH=/opt/local/ 
>>> bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH"
>>>
>>> and save.?
>>> I am trying this terminal approach to try and learn a new  
>>> environment and to keep my retired brain from atrophying. I hope  
>>> this is not a problem for you.?
>>
>> Sure, if you like the pico editor, you can use that, though you'll  
>> have to tell pico which file to edit, which is either  
>> ~/.bash_profile if you have that, or ~/.profile if you have that,  
>> or if you don't have either one then it doesn't matter which you  
>> create. There's also no need for "sudo" since you don't need  
>> superuser access to edit your own terminal settings. So for  
>> example you could type "pico ~/.bash_profile"
>>
>> I prefer the TextWrangler editor, which is a normal Mac app  
>> available from http://www.barebones.com/ . It's free and includes  
>> the "edit" command so you just type e.g. "edit ~/.bash_profile"  
>> and it opens that file into the editor.
>
> Everyone has its favorite text editor, mine was kwrite and now it's  
> Aptana for Web and Smultron for everything else. Although learning  
> how to use pico and CLI editors is useful because if almost  
> everything in the operating system fails, a visit to the CLI  
> knowing how to edit some key files is quite useful.
>
> I will add just a minor note: .profile has a dot and that, in Unix,  
> means it's invisible.
>
> Apple has (strangely) made the "show invisible files" a CLI only  
> option:

Not so strange, considering that a large portion -- maybe even a  
majority -- of Apple's target customers are the kind of users who  
don't need to see invisible files (or indeed even need know that they  
exist).


> % defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
> % killall Finder
>
> or FALSE for "don't show...".

If you don't like using the command-line, you can also download the  
graphical program TinkerTool which can also set (and unset) this  
option (and restart the Finder). That's how I did it.


> Another Apple-only "interesting" behaviour is that the Dock and  
> Finder apps are special somehow and they can never be killed. This  
> means "killall Finder" is more something like "reset Finder".

They're probably being monitored by something like a launchd plist to  
relaunch them if they ever crash. Understandable, given the central  
role that these apps play in the OS. If they ever crashed and didn't  
auto-relaunch, users would be confused.