Mac OS® X Tiger™ Unleashed

Interacting with Unix: Basic Unix Commands

You've already learned how to interact with Unix using Mac OS X's Aqua interface and the GUI tools discussed throughout the earlier chapters of this book. Much of the rest of the book provides the information you need to interact with Unix textually, through the command line. Unix commands, programs, and applications are all run by typing their names at the command line. The remainder of this chapter covers what you need to know to start interacting with the command line and how to get help for what you're trying to do.

Introduction to the Unix Shell

As mentioned previously, a terminal alone isn't sufficient to enable you to interact with your machine. The terminal needs something to talk to, and that ...