September 2002
Beginner to intermediate
216 pages
7h 43m
English
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The rc Scripts
The init process launches the /etc/rc.boot and /etc/rc shell scripts to start the system. Both rc scripts (and all startup items) source the /etc/rc.common script, which sets the initial environment, defines some useful functions, and loads the /etc/hostconfig file. /etc/hostconfig controls which system services need to be started and defines such things as the AppleTalk hostname. Example 2-2 is an excerpt from the hostconfig file.
Example 2-2. A portion of /etc/hostconfig
SSHSERVER=-YES- WEBSERVER=-YES- APPLETALK_HOSTNAME=*427269616e204a6570736f6ed57320436f6d7075746572*
This excerpt shows that sshd and httpd will be started on “Brian Jepson’s Computer” (the decoded AppleTalk hostname) at startup. The AppleTalk hostname is encoded as a sequence of hexadecimal bytes (for example, 42=B, 72=r, 69=i, 61=a, and 6e=n).
After rc.boot has loaded in values from /etc/rc.common, it determines whether the system is booting from a CD. Next, rc.boot tests to see whether the system is booting in single-user mode. If the system is neither in single-user mode nor booting from a CD, then rc.boot performs a check of the filesystem (fsck). If the fsck fails, then rc.boot tries an fsck -y, which assumes a “Yes” answer to all the questions that fsck asks. If that fails, the system reboots (and may end up trying an fsck -y over and over again).
Tip
If you find yourself in an fsck loop, you should boot from the Mac OS X installation CD. You can boot from a CD by holding down the C key ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.