The version of Unix that you'll encounter in Mac OS X's Terminal is similar to other versions you have seen, but dissimilar in some fundamental and often surprising ways. Although most tools are in their usual place, some are not on the system, while others are not where you would typically expect to find them on other Unix systems.
The lists shown in this section contain a sampling of the Unix commands developers will find on Mac OS X. It is, by no means, a complete list of the Unix utilities found on your system. Because there are so many commands, they are organized into several categories. If you are an experienced Unix user, many of these commands will be familiar to you, but we've referenced them here so you can quickly determine whether or not a command you need is available. Unless otherwise specified, all of the tools in the following lists can be found in /usr/bin or /usr/libexec. Some tools are available with the standard distribution of Mac OS X, but others are available only after installing the Developer Tools. (See Chapter 4 for more information about the Developer Tools). Appendix B contains a listing of commands that don't have manpages on Mac OS X.
The following commands are development tools that are commonly found on Unix and Linux systems.
The following list of utilities can be found in /Developer/Tools after you have installed the Developer Tools package. Project Builder depends on some of these tools. Many of these tools have their roots in Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW), Apple's old development environment.
Also available in the /Developer/Tools directory is a Perl script (uninstall-devtools.pl), which can be used to uninstall the Developer Tools.
You can use the following tools to work with Macintosh files and disks, Macintosh applications, and the Macintosh clipboard.
You can use the following tools to develop, debug, and run Java applications.
You can use the following tools to edit, convert, and otherwise manipulate text.
The following commands include shells and programs useful in shell scripts.
You can use the following tools to compare, copy, and examine files.
TIP: Symbolic and hard links are not the same as Carbon aliases that you create in the Finder (File Make Alias). Unix programs cannot follow Carbon aliases, but all Mac OS X applications (Carbon, Cocoa, Classic, and Unix) can follow symbolic or hard links.
The following tools will compress, decompress, and archive files.
You can use the following tools to search and sort files.
The following tools will help you perform such tasks as searching the online documentation, switching user IDs, and controlling how programs run.
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