• Reviews • Reader Reviews • Errata Mac OS X Hacks By Rael Dornfest, Kevin Hemenway Publisher: O'Reilly Pub Date: March 2003 ISBN: 0-596-00460-5 Pages: 430 Copyright Credits About the Authors Contributors Acknowledgments Foreword Preface How to Use This Book How This Book Is Organized Conventions Used in This Book How to Contact Us Chapter 1. Files Section 1.1. Hacks #1-12 Hack 1. Understanding and Hacking Your User Account Hack 2. Taking the Bite Out of Backup Hack 3. Backing Up on the Go Hack 4. Dealing with Archives of Many Colors: .img, .sit, .tar, .gz Hack 5. A Line Break Is a Line Break Hack 6. Fiddling with Type/Creator Codes and File Extensions Hack 7. Locking and Unlocking Files Hack 8. Stubborn Trash, Stuck Images, and Jammed CDs Hack 9. Aliases, Symlinks, and Hard Links Hack 10. Recent Filenames Hack 11. Inspecting the Contents of an .app Package Hack 12. Opening Microsoft Word Documents Without Microsoft Word Chapter 2. Startup Section 2.1. Hacks #13-17 Hack 13. Getting a Glimpse of the Boot Process Hack 14. Booting from Another Device Hack 15. Turning Your Mac into a Hard Drive Hack 16. Using Open Firmware Password Protection Hack 17. OS X for This Old Mac Chapter 3. Multimedia and the iApps Section 3.1. Hacks #18-32 Hack 18. Top iChat Tips Hack 19. AIM Alternatives Hack 20. Printing to PDF or Bitmapped Image Hack 21. Image Conversion in a Pinch Hack 22. Top 10 iPhoto Tips Hack 23. Make Your Own Documentary Hack 24. From Slideshow to Video Presentation Hack 25. Hijacking Audio from Mac Apps Hack 26. Running Your Own Web Radio Station Hack 27. Sharing Your Listening Preferences Hack 28. Controlling iTunes with Perl Hack 29. iCal Calling iTunes Hack 30. Publishing and Subscribing to iCal Calendars Hack 31. Using Bluetooth for SMS and Phone-Call Handling Hack 32. iSync via Bluetooth Chapter 4. The User Interface Section 4.1. Hacks #33-47 Hack 33. Finding Your Way Back to the Desktop Hack 34. Alt-Tab Alt-Ternatives Hack 35. Putting Things in the Apple Menu Hack 36. Keeping Your Snippets Organized Hack 37. LaunchBar, a Dock Alternative Hack 38. DockSwap, Another Dock Alternative Hack 39. Tinkering with Your User Interface Hack 40. Extending Your Screen Real Estate with Virtual Desktops Hack 41. Top Screenshot Tips Hack 42. Checking Your Mac's Pulse Hack 43. Screensaver as Desktop Hack 44. Dipping Your Pen into Inkwell Hack 45. Speakable Web Services Hack 46. Using AppleScript in Contextual Menus Hack 47. Prying the Chrome Off Cocoa Applications Chapter 5. Unix and the Terminal Section 5.1. Hacks #48-65 Hack 48. Introducing the Terminal Hack 49. More Terminal Tricks and Tips Hack 50. Becoming an Administrator for a Moment Hack 51. Editing Special Unix Files Hack 52. Setting Shell Environment Variables Hack 53. Scheduling with System Tasks and Other Events Hack 54. Opening Things from the Command Line Hack 55. Introducing and Installing the Mac OS X Developer Tools Hack 56. Top 10 Mac OS X Tips for Unix Geeks Hack 57. Turning a Command-Line Script into an Application Hack 58. Installing Unix Applications with Fink Hack 59. Mirroring Files and Directories with rsync Hack 60. Using CVS to Manage Data on Multiple Machines Hack 61. Downloading Files from the Command Line Hack 62. Software Update on the Command Line Hack 63. Interacting with the Unix Shell from AppleScript Hack 64. Running AppleScripts on a Regular Basis Automatically Hack 65. Running Linux on an iBook Chapter 6. Networking Section 6.1. Hacks #66-78 Hack 66. Anatomy of an Internet Shortcut Hack 67. Renewing Your DHCP-Assigned IP address Hack 68. Sharing an Internet Connection Hack 69. Creating a One-Wire Network Hack 70. Secure Tunneling with VPN or SSH Hack 71. Remotely Log In to Another Machine via SSH Hack 72. Running Windows on and from a Mac Hack 73. Sharing Files Between Mac and Windows PCs Hack 74. Mounting a WebDAV Share Hack 75. Mounting a Remote FTP Directory Hack 76. Exchanging a File via Bluetooth Hack 77. Using Your Cell Phone as a Bluetooth Modem Hack 78. Setting Up Domain Name Service Chapter 7. Email Section 7.1. Hacks #79-84 Hack 79. Taming the Entourage Database Hack 80. Using IMAP with Apple's Mail Application Hack 81. Setting Up IMAP and POP Mail Servers Hack 82. Getting sendmail Up and Running Hack 83. Downloading POP Mail with fetchmail Hack 84. Creating Mail Aliases Chapter 8. The Web Section 8.1. Hacks #85-98 Hack 85. Searching the Internet from Your Desktop Hack 86. Saving Web Pages for Offline Reading Hack 87. Reading Syndicated Online Content Hack 88. Serving Up a Web Site with the Built-In Apache Server Hack 89. Editing the Apache Web Server's Configuration Hack 90. Build Your Own Apache Server with mod_perl Hack 91. AppleScript CGI with ACGI Dispatcher Hack 92. Turning on CGI Hack 93. Turning on PHP Hack 94. Turning on Server-Side Includes (SSI) Hack 95. Turning on WebDAV Hack 96. Controlling Web-Server Access by Hostname or IP Address Hack 97. Controlling Web-Server Access by Username and Group Hack 98. Directory Aliasing, Indexing, and Autoindexing Chapter 9. Databases Section 9.1. Hacks #99-100 Hack 99. Installing the MySQL Database Hack 100. Installing the PostgreSQL Database Colophon Index Book: Mac OS X Hacks Copyright © 2003 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O'Reilly & Associates books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safari.oreilly. com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: (800) 998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O'Reilly logo are registered trademarks of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. The association between the image of a wrench and the topic of Mac OS X is a trademark of O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. The trademarks "Hacks Books" and "The Hacks Series," and related trade dress, are owned by O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Book: Mac OS X Hacks Credits About the Authors Contributors Acknowledgments Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Credits About the Authors Rael Dornfest is a maven at O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., focusing on technologies just beyond the pale. He assesses, experiments, programs, and writes for the O'Reilly Network and O'Reilly publications. Rael has edited, coauthored, and contributed to various O'Reilly books. He is program chair for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference and O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference, chair of the RSS-DEV Working Group, and developer of Meerkat: An Open Wire Service (meerkat.oreillynet.com). In his copious free time, Rael develops bits and bobs of freeware and maintains his raelity bytes weblog (http://www. raelity.org). Kevin Hemenway, better known as Morbus Iff, is the creator of disobey.com, which bills itself as "content for the discontented." Publisher, developer, and writer of more home cooking than you could ever imagine (like the popular open source syndicated reader AmphetaDesk, the best-kept gaming secret Gamegrene.com, the popular Ghost Sites and Nonsense Network, the giggle-inducing articles at the O'Reilly Network, a few pieces at Apple's Internet Developer site, etc.) he's an ardent supporter of cloning, merely so he can get more work done. He cooks with a Fry Pan of Intellect +2 and lives in Concord, NH. You can contact him at morbus@disobey.com. Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Credits Contributors The following people contributed to this book: ● Michael Brewer (http://mbrewer.dyndns.org/macosxhacks/) is a developer based near Charlotte, North Carolina. He has written several OS X-related articles for O'Reilly Mac DevCenter. His interests include web development of various flavors (primarily Java) and database design. When the weekend rolls around, those tend to disappear and he focuses on mountain biking. ● James Duncan Davidson (http://www.x180.net/) is a freelance author, speaker, and software consultant focusing on Mac OS X, Java, and XML technologies. He regularly presents at conferences all over the world on topics ranging from open source to programming Java effectively. He was the original author of Apache Tomcat and Apache Ant and was instrumental in their donation to the Apache Software Foundation by Sun Microsystems. While working at Sun, he authored two versions of the Java Servlet API specification, as well as the Java API for XML Processing specification. He currently resides in San Francisco, California. ● Edd Dumbill is Managing Editor of XML.com. He also writes free software, and packages Bluetooth-related software for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. Edd is the creator of XMLhack (http://xmlhack.com/) and WriteTheWeb (http:// writetheweb.com/). ● Rob Flickenger was born the son of a pig farmer in Bucharest. This young ne'er-do- well had few ambitions above mucking out the slop stall before dinner. But that was just at the dawn of the digital age. Who would have thought that five years later the same boy who thought cow tipping shouldn't go above 10% would go on to invent the Internet and eventually become the first living human with an ADSL line surgically attached to his spinal column. Now, in these increasingly untethered times, he has eschewed his former 6Mbit neural I/O port for an 11Mbit, encrypted, wireless version. It certainly makes it easier to leave the house without the need for miles of extension cord. In his spare time, he also writes; Rob is the author of Building Wireless Community Networks and Linux Server Hacks. ● brian d foy (http://www.panix.com/~comdog/) has been a dedicated Mac user since a Quadra 650, which he still uses. Seven Macs later, most of them still in use, he deals almost exclusively with Mac OS X for his Perl development work, even if he has to use Virtual PC to cheat. He is also a Perl developer and trainer who maintains several Perl modules on CPAN and publishes The Perl Review, all from his PoweBbook. ● Alan Graham's (http://homepage.mac.com/agraham999/) mission, using wit sharp as an electric razor and a modicum of grammatical skill, is enabling users to explore what's possible with straight talk and as little techno-babble as possible. He has worked in prepress, digital video and film, interactive, software development, and web development for a wide spectrum of clients that include Apple Computer, Sausage Software, Mattel, Better Homes & Gardens, OpenMarket, PresenceWorks. com, Paramount, and Excite@home to name a few. When he's not writing for O'Reilly, you can find him doing R&D for Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, running errands for his pregnant wife Dana, and working on the great American novel. You can find more of Alan's writing via his blog, Trial and Eror (http:// homepage.mac.com/agraham999/iblog/). ● Brian Jepson (http://www.jepstone.net/) maintains a keen focus on the sparks that fly where two cutting edges meet. Some of his favorite intersections are Mac OS X (where a solid Unix core meets the pioneering Apple user interface), Mono and Portable.NET (where Open Source meets Windows), and Rotor (where Microsoft shares a bunch of code with y'all). Brian is also an O'Reilly editor and coauthor of Mac OS X for Unix Geeks and Learning Unix for Mac OS X. ● Wei-Meng Lee (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/944) teaches at the School of Information and Communications Technology, NgeeAnn Polytechnic, Singapore. He is an experienced author, trainer, and developer specializing in Mac OS X and Microsoft .NET technologies. Wei-Meng is also a writer for the O'Reilly Network and a contributing author to SQL Server Magazine and DevX.com. ● Jason McIntosh (http://www.jmac.org/) lives and works in and around Boston. He has coauthored two O'Reilly books, Mac OS X in a Nutshell and Perl & XML, and writes occasional columns and weblog entries for the O'Reilly Network. ● Bruce W. Perry is an independent software developer and writer. Since 1996, he has developed web applications and databases for various nonprofits, design and marketing firms, ad agencies, and digital-music specialists. Before working in the web field, Perry remained tethered to his portable and desktop Macs while writing environmental law books and newsletters. When not hacking or writing, he loves cycling and climbing mountains in the U.S. and Switzerland. He lives in the Newburyport, Massachusetts area with his wife Stacy LeBaron and daughter Rachel. ● Erik T. Ray has worked for O'Reilly as a software developer and XML specialist since 1995. He helped to establish a complete publishing solution using DocBook- XML and Perl to produce books in print, on CD-ROM, and for the new Safari web library of books. As the author of the O'Reilly bestseller Learning XML and numerous articles in technical journals, Erik is known for his clear and entertaining writing style. When not hammering out code, he enjoys playing card games, reading about hemorrhagic fevers, practicing Buddhist meditation, and collecting toys. He lives in Saugus, MA with his wife Jeannine and seven parrots. ● Matthew Sparby (http://www.obzorg.org/) is a technology consultant and Macintosh hobbyist from Orlando, Florida. He publishes the Mac-centric web site Obzorg.org and contributes material to other technology publications and user groups ● Chris Stone is a Senior Systems Administrator (the Mac guy) at O'Reilly and coauthor of Mac OS X in a Nutshell. He's written several Mac OS X-related articles for the O'Reilly MacDevCenter (http://www.macdevcenter.com) and contributed to Mac OS X: The Missing Manual. Chris lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Miho and two sons, Andrew and Jonathan. ● Derrick Story (http://www.storyphoto.com/) is the coauthor of iPhoto: The Missing Manual and author of the Digital Photography Pocket Guide. His day job is managing editor of O'Reilly Network and the Mac DevCenter (http://www. macdevcenter.com/). Derrick's experience includes more than 15 years as a photojournalist, a stint as the managing editor for Web Review, and speaker at CMP and IDG tech conferences. He also manages his online photo business, Story Photography. ● Jon Udell (http://udell.roninhouse.com/) is lead analyst for the InfoWorld Test Center. He is the author of Practical Internet Groupware, published in 1999 by O'Reilly, and an advisor to O'Reilly's Safari Tech Books Online. ● David E. Wheeler (http://david.wheeler.net/) is President of Kineticode (http:// www.kineticode.com/), an enterprise content management and software development consulting company based in San Francisco. He also serves as the maintainer and lead developer for Bricolage, an open-source content management system built on Apache, mod_perl, and PostgreSQL. An active member of the Perl community and a speaker at the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference (http:// conferences.oreilly.com/macosxcon/), David has contributed an appendix introducing Bricolage to O'Reilly's Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason, as well as several articles addressing the needs of the serious Mac OS X-based Perl and Unix developer. David lives in San Francisco with his wife, Julie, and their two cats. [...]... fix the permissions, launch the Terminal [Hack #48] (Applications Utilities Terminal) and use the chown command, like so: [HappyMac:/Users] root# chown -R [HappyMac:/Users] root# ls -l total 0 drwxrwx 4 root admin drwxrwxrwt 3 root wheel drwxr-xr -x 11 john staff drwxr-xr -x 11 johnjaco staff johnjacobjingleheimerschmidt john.staff john 136 102 374 374 Feb 6 23:07 Deleted Users Jul 13 2002 Shared Feb... right answer Mac OS X Hacks provides direct, hands-on solutions that can be applied to the challenges facing both those meeting the Mac for the first time and longtime users delving into Mac OS X and its Unix underpinnings The collection should appeal to home users and corporate IT personnel alike Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Preface How to Use This Book You can read this book cover-to-cover if you... flexibility of Unix under the hood Those coming to Mac OS X from previous incarnations of the operating system, while recognizing much of the friendly face of the Macintosh, are plunged into a whole new world where things are almost like they were, but not quite - not to mention all that Unix command-line stuff lurking in the Terminal application Unix converts to Mac OS X find a familiar FreeBSD-like operating... to those who are willing to leave the beaten path For the hackers among us, it's all about the thrill of discovery If you're one of them, put on your backpack; you're about to go on quite a ride -David Pogue, Creator of the Missing Manual series Book: Mac OS X Hacks Preface Mac OS X is a marvelous confluence of the user-friendly and highly customizable Macintosh of yesteryear and the power and flexibility... for the most part, each hack stands on its own If there's a prerequisite you ought to know about, there'll be a cross-reference to guide you on the right path So feel free to browse, flipping around whatever section interests you most Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Preface How This Book Is Organized Mac OS X is remarkable enough to bring together, on one desktop, longtime Mac devotees and Unix hackers... old It does so by rebuilding the renowned Mac look-and-feel on the shoulders of a best-of-breed Unix operating system OS X' s flexibility, customizability, and extensibility mean there's just about nothing you can't do if you set your mind to it This book goes beyond the simple tips and tricks, click here and drag there, to the more interesting hacks - bite-sized bits of truly useful functionality you... for tweaking the look-and-feel, extending the functionality that's already there, and teaching your Mac to behave "just as it should." Chapter 5, Unix and the Terminal Beneath the sleek, elegant, Technicolor candy coating of Mac OS X' s graphical user-interface beats the heart of an honest-to-goodness Unix operating system This chapter provides a gentle introduction to the command-line environment, showing... Extensions Hack 7 Locking and Unlocking Files Hack 8 Stubborn Trash, Stuck Images, and Jammed CDs Hack 9 Aliases, Symlinks, and Hard Links Hack 10 Recent Filenames Hack 11 Inspecting the Contents of an app Package Hack 12 Opening Microsoft Word Documents Without Microsoft Word Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Chapter 1 Files 1.1 Hacks # 1-1 2 The Mac OS X filesystem is a blend of powerful, ancient Unix... the peculiar mix of manpages and notparticularly-helpful Help Center, pulling the best tips, tricks, and scripts from Mac power users and Unix hackers themselves The collection reflects the real-world experience of those well steeped in Unix history and expertise, sharing their no-nonsense, sometimes quick-and-dirty solutions to administering and taking full advantage of everything a Unix desktop has...Book: Mac OS X Hacks Section: Credits Acknowledgments We would like to thank all those who contributed their ideas and code for Mac OS X hacks to this book Rael First and foremost, to Asha and Sam - always my inspiration, joy, and best friends My extended family and friends, both local and virtual, who'd begun to wonder if they . Administrator (the Mac guy) at O'Reilly and coauthor of Mac OS X in a Nutshell. He's written several Mac OS X- related articles for the O'Reilly MacDevCenter (http://www.macdevcenter.com). and Mac OS know-how. Mac OS X Hacks goes beyond the peculiar mix of manpages and not- particularly-helpful Help Center, pulling the best tips, tricks, and scripts from Mac power users and Unix. shares a bunch of code with y'all). Brian is also an O'Reilly editor and coauthor of Mac OS X for Unix Geeks and Learning Unix for Mac OS X. ● Wei-Meng Lee (http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/944)