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1.6. Mac OS X's Unix Development Tools

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.

1.6.1. Standard Unix Development Tools

The following commands are development tools that are commonly found on Unix and Linux systems.

bison
A yacc-compatible parser generator.

cvs
A high-level revision control system that sits on top of RCS.

flex , flex++
A tool that generates lexical analyzers. See lex & yacc (O'Reilly).

cc , gcc
Apple's customized version of gcc, the GNU C compiler.

gdb
A source-level debugger.

gnumake, make
Tools that automate the steps necessary to compile a source code package. See Managing Projects with make (O'Reilly).

rcs
A command that manages file revisions.

unzip
A tool that extracts files from a zip archive.

zip
A command that creates a zip archive.

1.6.2. Apple's Command-line Developer Tools

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.

agvtool
Acts as a versioning tool for Project Builder projects.

BuildStrings
Creates resource string definitions.

CpMac
Serves as an alternative to cp; preserves resource forks when copying.

cvs-unwrap
Extracts a tar file created by cvs-wrap.

cvs-wrap
Combines a directory into a single tar file.

cvswrappers
Checks an entire directory into CVS as a binary file.

DeRez
Displays the contents of a resource fork.

GetFileInfo
Displays extended information about a file, including creator code and file type.

lnresolve
Returns the target of a symbolic link.

MergePef
Merges code fragments from one file into another.

MvMac
Serves as an alternative to mv; preserves resource forks when copying.

pbhelpindexer
Creates an index of Apple's API documentation for Project Builder.

pbprojectdump
Used by Project Builder's FileMerge feature to produce more readable diffs between file versions.

pbxcp
Supports Project Builder's build system; an internal tool.

pbxhmapdump
Debugs header maps; also internal to Project Builder.

ResMerger
Merges resource manager resource files. Project Builder's build system compiles .r files into .rsrc files using Rez, and if needed, Project Builder merges multiple files using ResMerger.

Rez
Compiles resource files.

RezWack
Embeds resource and data forks in a file.

sdp
Converts a scripting definition file into another format.

SetFile
Sets HFS+ file attributes.

SplitForks
Splits the resource fork, moving it from a dual-forked file into a file named ._pathname.

UnRezWack
Removes resource and data forks from a file.

WSMakeStubs
Generates web service stubs from a WSDL file.

Also available in the /Developer/Tools directory is a Perl script (uninstall-devtools.pl), which can be used to uninstall the Developer Tools.

1.6.3. Macintosh Tools

You can use the following tools to work with Macintosh files and disks, Macintosh applications, and the Macintosh clipboard.

bless
Makes a system folder bootable.

diskutil
Manipulates disks and volumes.

ditto
Copies directories, and optionally includes resource forks for copied files.

hdiutil
Manipulates disk images.

installer
Installs packages; command-line tool.

lsbom
Lists the contents of a Bill of Materials (bom) file, such as the .bom files deposited under /Library/Receipts.

open
Opens a file or directory. See "open" under Section 1.5.4, earlier in this chapter.

pbcopy
Copies standard input to the clipboard.

pbpaste
Sends the contents of the clipboard to standard output.

screencapture
Takes a screenshot of a window or the screen.

serversetup
Configures network adapter properties. (Mac OS X Server only.)

1.6.4. Java Development Tools

You can use the following tools to develop, debug, and run Java applications.

appletviewer
A Java applet viewer.

jar
A Java archive tool.

java
The Java Virtual Machine.

javac
The Java compiler.

javadoc
A Java documentation generator.

javah
A tool that generates C and header files for JNI programming.

javap
A tool that disassembles class files and inspects member signatures.

jdb
The Java Debugger.

jikes
A fast open source Java compiler (installed as part of the Developer Tools package).

1.6.5. Text Editing and Processing

You can use the following tools to edit, convert, and otherwise manipulate text.

awk
A pattern-matching language for textual database files.

cut
A tool that selects columns for display.

emacs
GNU Emacs.

ex
A line editor underlying vi.

fmt
A tool that produces roughly uniform line length.

groff
A document formatting system that can render troff typesetting macros to PostScript, HTML, and other formats.

join
A tool that merges different columns into a database.

paste
A utility that merges columns or switches their order.

pico
A simple text editor designed for use with the Pine mailer. Note that the version of pine that ships with Mac OS X is much older than the current release.

sed
A stream editor.

texi2html
A tool that converts Texinfo to HTML.

tr
A command that substitutes or deletes characters.

vi
A visual text editor.

1.6.6. Scripting and Shell Programming

The following commands include shells and programs useful in shell scripts.

echo
A command that repeats command-line arguments on standard output.

expr
A command that performs arithmetic and comparisons.

line
A command that reads a line of input.

lockfile
A command that makes sure that a file is accessed by only one script at a time.

perl
The Practical Extraction and Report Language.

printf
A command that formats and prints command-line arguments.

sh
A standard Unix shell.

sleep
A command that causes a pause during processing.

tclsh
The Tool Command Language (Tcl) shell.

test
A command that tests a condition.

xargs
A command that reads arguments from standard input and passes them to a command.

zsh
An enhanced Unix shell.

1.6.7. Working with Files and Directories

You can use the following tools to compare, copy, and examine files.

cat
Concatenates and displays files.

cd
Changes directory.

chflags
Changes file flags.

chmod
Changes access modes on files.

cmp
Compares two files, byte by byte.

comm
Compares two sorted files.

cp
Copies files.

diff
Compares two files, line by line.

diff3
Compares three files.

file
Determines a file's type.

head
Shows the first few lines of a file.

less
Serves as an enhanced alternative to more.

ln
Creates symbolic or hard links.

TIP: Symbolic and hard links are not the same as Carbon aliases that you create in the Finder (File Figure 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.

ls
Lists files or directories.

mkdir
Makes a new directory.

more
Displays files one screen at a time.

mv
Moves or renames files or directories.

patch
Merges a set of changes into a file.

pwd
Prints the working directory.

rcp
Insecurely copies a file to or from a remote machine. Use scp instead.

rm
Removes files.

rmdir
Removes directories.

scp
Secures alternative to rcp.

sdiff
Compares two files, side-by-side and line-by-line.

split
Splits files evenly.

tail
Shows the last few lines of a file.

vis
Displays nonprinting characters in a readable form.

unvis
Restores the output of vis to its original form.

wc
Counts lines, words, and characters.

zcmp
Compares two compressed files, byte-by-byte.

zdiff
Compare two compressed files, line-by-line.

1.6.8. File Compression and Storage

The following tools will compress, decompress, and archive files.

compress
A tool that compresses files to free up space (use gzip instead).

cpio
A utility that copies archives in or out.

gnutar
The GNU version of tar; available only if you have installed the Developer Tools package.

gunzip
A tool that uncompresses a file that was compressed with gzip.

gzcat
A utility that displays contents of compressed files.

gzip
A tool that compresses a file with Lempel-Ziv encoding.

tar
A tape archive tool. GNU tar has more features and fewer limitations.

uncompress
A utility that expands compressed (.Z) files.

zcat
A tool that displays contents of compressed files.

1.6.9. Searching and Sorting

You can use the following tools to search and sort files.

egrep
An extended version of grep.

fgrep
A tool that searches files for literal words.

find
A utility that searches the system for filenames.

grep
A tool that searches files for text patterns.

locate
A faster version of find; however, it depends on a database that is periodically updated by the weekly cron job in /etc/weekly. If the database is out of date, find will be more accurate.

sort
A tool that sorts a file (use -n for numeric sorting, -u to eliminate duplicates).

strings
A tool that searches binary files for text patterns.

uniq
A utility that reports or filters duplicate lines in a file.

zgrep
A tool that searches compressed files for text patterns.

1.6.10. Miscellaneous Tools

The following tools will help you perform such tasks as searching the online documentation, switching user IDs, and controlling how programs run.

apropos
Locates commands by keyword.

clear
Clears the screen.

dc
Serves as a reverse-polish arbitrary precision calculator.

man
Gets information on a command.

nice
Changes a job's priority.

nohup
Keeps a job running even if you log out.

passwd
Changes your password.

script
Produces a transcript of your login session.

su
Allows you to become the superuser. Since the root account is disabled by default, you should use sudo instead.

sudo
Executes a command as another user. This tool is usually used to temporarily gain superuser privileges.

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