26. Working with the Mac OS X Command Line

Using the Unix Command Line with Mac OS X

As you learned earlier in the book, Mac OS X is running on top of a version of the Unix operating system. This means that Mac OS X can use many Unix applications. It also means you can enter Unix commands directly in the command-line interface to manipulate your system. In fact, in some situations, using a Unix command might be the best way you can accomplish a task (such as deleting a rogue file that you can’t delete by dragging it to the Trash).

Unix is a very powerful language/operating system; however, it is also complex, and many of its commands require you to use complicated syntax to get them to work properly. Unix commands are incomprehensible to most ...

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