Discussion in 'Mac Basics and Help' started by jeanniebeannie, Oct 8, 2013.
I've never worked with the command line before. Are there any "best" sites or books to learn it?
If you are looking for a basic command life stuff check out the 10.8 Support essentials and 10.8 Server essentials. They have a section called command line basics which can be pretty handy.
Not sure about a "best". But there are plenty of books out there on shells like bash. Looks like O'Reilly has a book "Learning the bash shell" that seems pretty comprehensive.
But recognize that the book is geared toward Linux. I would estimate that 90+% of the book will apply to Mac as well since it uses the same bash shell. But there might be minor differences.
One option for virtualized environment is to install a virtualized Linux install. That way it would follow the book much closer. And you won't mess up your Mac.
The major difference between the Mac and Linux will be some specific system management utilities. Also, some command options will be a little different. But the way the shell acts, pipes, how variables act, and how the filesystem acts will be all the same.
Just saw another book published by Wiley. "MAC OS X UNIX Toolbox" Haven't seen it. Maybe it'll be more what you want and more specific to the Mac.
Be aware that the CLI can mess things up. The best comment I've read - and I wish I could remember who to give the credit to - essentially said that the Command Line interface is called the Terminal for a reason. If you get what I mean.
Always have a very good verified backup if you are going to muck about with it, and especially if you don't really know what you are doing.
Will give you a description of the command and it's usage. It's not a book, but might prevent you from messing things up.
you can also use 'man sudo' as an example to bring up the more detailed technical manual (all the options and their usage, but this can seem intimidating for newbies).
What you might want to do is get a cheap external USB3 drive then use Disk Util or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your system to the external drive. Then option key boot to that drive to do your Terminal tinkering. This way any damage you do is limited to the clone on the external. If you really screw it up you can just reclone from the internal drive.
For Technology books look no farther the O'Reilly Media and for the OS X Terminal I suggest the book Macintosh Terminal Pocket Guide.
Now for a cool website to bookmark (they have hints throughout the OS X area) is Mac OS X Hints. Keep and eye this site because hints are giving all the time and also use the search function.