Trying to understand OSX and the UNIX filesystem?????

[britishnemesis]

So here's my question... how on earth can I find or navigate the Unix filesystem in OSX without going into the terminal. I have just installed mysql and have really messed things up so I wanted to remove it through the finder by deleting it.... little did i know that the finder cannot find the directory it is located in (/usr/local/mysql)


Thanks for any help you guys can give!

[powerbookje]

command+shift+g and paste the path.
you can also search for invisible files using command+f

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

...or, using the terminal for one small command, you can type:

open /usr/local

and finder will open a window on that location...

But I can't se why

rm -r /usr/local/mysql

is so much harder, some simple *nix commands can come in very handy some times...

[sonofslim]

go here: http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/mysql/remove-old-mysql.html and get the remove-old-mysql script. it'll hunt down and delete all the MySQL files so that you can perform a clean install.

i've used it and it's really the only way to go. you will never, ever find all of the files created by your previous MySQL install on your own. a quote from the page linked above: "A MySQL installation consists of nearly 900 files in various locations." trying to reinstall MySQL on top of an incomplete uninstall will only result in a broken DB server and, possibly, a broken heart.

[bhertz]

Tinker tool is a system preference pane that can be added that will let you toggle invisible system files visibility. It also has a bunch of other gui tools.

I have used this in the past when working with unix tools in the mac gui.