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Learn Lion Terminal - need books

bruleke

bruleke

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 26, 2009
444
6
127.0.0.1
Hi.

I have never used terminal but I am really interested in using it.
Can you recommend a good book for that?
Something like "good for newbies and also good for advanced users".

Please, dont tell me to buy "the missing manual".
I really want something related to the Terminal.

Thanks a lot!

Ah! I appreciate if nobody replies to this thread calling me troll just because I am not a genius at Terminal app.
 
bruleke said:
Hi.

I have never used terminal but I am really interested in using it.
Can you recommend a good book for that?
Something like "good for newbies and also good for advanced users".

Please, dont tell me to buy "the missing manual".
I really want something related to the Terminal.

Thanks a lot!

Ah! I appreciate if nobody replies to this thread calling me troll just because I am not a genius at Terminal app.
Click to expand...

Google: Unix Commands, you don't need a book. If you want to script, you can look up BASH scripting
 
Troll! :)

Ok, so the Terminal is just your entrance into the UNIX subsystem of OS X. There's nothing really Lion-specific about it, unless you count being able to enable/disable Lion features from the command line.

It runs a Mach kernel, which is a form of BSD (Berkeley Standard Distribution) UNIX. You can pick up almost any book on UNIX to start learning the commands, or type man <command name> to get more info directly from the in-system help. Here are a few to get you started:

cd (change directory)
ls (list files, similar to dir in windows)
uptime (how long the computer has been running)
top (similar to activity monitor, but on the command line)
kill (kill a running program)

Notice that all of these commands are lowercase - UNIX is case-sensitive.

Good luck!
 
GoKyu said:
Troll! :)

Ok, so the Terminal is just your entrance into the UNIX subsystem of OS X. There's nothing really Lion-specific about it, unless you count being able to enable/disable Lion features from the command line.

It runs a Mach kernel, which is a form of BSD (Berkeley Standard Distribution) UNIX. You can pick up almost any book on UNIX to start learning the commands, or type man <command name> to get more info directly from the in-system help. Here are a few to get you started:

cd (change directory)
ls (list files, similar to dir in windows)
uptime (how long the computer has been running)
top (similar to activity monitor, but on the command line)
kill (kill a running program)

Notice that all of these commands are lowercase - UNIX is case-sensitive.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

I will not say anything about the "troll" because I know you are joking, ok? And also because you really seemed to help.
___________

But thanks for the tips! I didnt know Terminal uses Unix commands! I will look for a book!
I just want to learn something different ;)
 
Last edited:
bruleke said:
I will not say anything about the "troll" because I know you are joking, ok? And also because you really seemed to help.
___________

But thanks for the tips! I didnt know Terminal uses Unix commands! I will look for a book!
I just want to learn something different ;)
Click to expand...

Another thing you can do is search for terminal commands in google and then when in terminal type command man or command help. It will tell you everything that particular command does.
 
Thanks for all the replies! :)

I am really interested in learning UNIX commands!
I am graduated at Administration in 2009, but I love computer programming - I know nothing, I just love it!

Of course my intention is not to be a "Mark Zuckerberg" ehehh. But I want be able to do interesting stuff with Unix!

Do you recommend any book?
An e-book would be nice, since I am not that rich...
 
I wouldn't recommend simply playing around with Terminal and *NIX commands. If you don't know what you are doing, you can create an awful mess. It's very easy when playing around with commands to screw the system up so badly you will need to re-install.

I remember when I was working (before I retired) we would get smart-ass whippersnappers just out of college (with CS degrees) who would not pay attention to what they were doing at the console and screw the system up.

Terminal is very powerful, but it allows you to do things you shouldn't.
 
bruleke said:
Hi.

I have never used terminal but I am really interested in using it.
Can you recommend a good book for that?
Something like "good for newbies and also good for advanced users".

Please, dont tell me to buy "the missing manual".
I really want something related to the Terminal.

Thanks a lot!

Ah! I appreciate if nobody replies to this thread calling me troll just because I am not a genius at Terminal app.
Click to expand...

You have a lot of good info already. One option is to use a virtual machine setup of some sort ( parallels/vmware/virtual box ) and create a copy of mac os x in your virtual machine.

That way you can do what you want in terminal in your virtual machine without messing up your "real" system.

There's not that much difference between mac os x and modern linux most of what you are doing with "terminal" commands plays between them.

Basically it sounds like you are interested in learning unix shell scripting???

There are a lot of things apple has built in on top of standard unix to control things specific to mac os x.

You may also be interested in learning some apple script perhaps?
 
I have a similar kind of problem. I just got a macBook Pro. I had a PC before. I would like to learn more about the system, in every sense. I have absolutely no idea about different shells and what scripting is or anything for that matter.

So i would be very grateful if someone could recommend a good book about all things not about the GUI but about the UNIX part of it. The command line, terminal, etc.

Thanks
 
I didn't read that book. But O'Reilly Media general offers great books. Sadly a little bit old.

lrg.jpg


http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596004705.do?sortby=bestSellers
 
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