On Dec 16, 2008, at 9:25 AM, D Stubbs wrote:
> OK, I have never opened Terminal App, interesting, it opened with a
> page
> titled
> Terminal-Bash-80x24
>
> On this page it has 3 lines of text, but the cursor is not active on
> this
> page to enter anything,
The cursor is active, just not visible:
Here's what it looks like on mine:
Last login: Mon Dec 15 16:38:32 on ttys002
dbdev2:~ johnson$
Since I have my cursor set (via preferences) to an unblinking block
there's a block sitting at the end of the line 'dbdev2:~ johnson$'
If that window is active, simply typing will put the command text in
the window. This is the infamous 'command-line interface', and that
last line is called a 'command prompt'. What it shows can be changed,
but it shows me some useful information. Here's the various parts and
their meaning:
"dbdev2" This is the name of the computer I'm using. While this may
seem nonsensical (of course I know what computer I'm using!) it's very
useful, since I can connect to other computers in terminal, using
various commands, so It's VERY useful to know what computer you're
dealing with...)
":~" This shows the current directory and a unix shortcut. a tilde ~
is shorthand for 'the logged on user's home directory' (Which explains
the tee shirt I have that says "There's no place like ~" :-)
"johnson" This shows the current user name. Since I can change to
other users, on the same computer, this is again, very useful
information.
Finally there's "$" which is just an arbitrary symbol being used to
delineate the end of the prompt from whatever commands you may type.
All the action takes place in the window, not via menus.
You said "The folder is within my boot OS10.3.9 partition" which I'm
not entirely clear what you mean. This requires a short side trip into
"How Unix is Organized" so we can start talking the same language.
Conceptually, no matter how many disks or partitions you have, your
Mac organizes it's files as a single, large tree. Branches are
separated by '/' symbols and can either be directories (== folders in
the finder) or files.
Everything starts at the root (as trees do :-) which is always on the
boot partition, and everything is linked, so you can work out a single
route (called a 'path') from the root to any file or directory on the
system.
For example, I have a file called photo.jpg in my documents folder. If
you click on the your boot drive in the finder, you'll see a folder
that lists a number of folders System, Library, Users, etc.
Your user directory is in Users, and in the finder you would click on
your home directory and then documents to get to the folder holding
that file photo.jpg.
To get there in Terminal I type cd ("change directory") followed by
the names of the folders enclosing it in a list, separated by '/'s:
cd /Users/johnson/Documents
And hit return.
dbdev2:~ johnson$ cd /Users/johnson/Documents
dbdev2:Documents johnson$
The command completes, but notice, the part befor 'johnson$' now says
Documents, which is the name of the current folder.
Since the command is done, and completed without error, I'm just left
again at a command prompt.
If I do the ls command ('list') It lists the names of those files:
dbdev2:Documents johnson$ ls
A Brief History of Doubt.dvdproj camo drumstick II.s3d
Acrobat camo drumstick cx.jpg
Address Book - 8:13:07.abbu clarks list.xls
Adobe Reader comic_art.html
Advising Sheet.pdf comic_art_files
ArcSoft cop_email_totals.xls
...
And drops me back to a command prompt again.
If I type:
cd /
That takes me to the root of my whole system, and if I type ls, you'll
see some interesting things:
dbdev2:/ johnson$ ls
Applications Users
Desktop (Mac OS 9) Volumes
Desktop DB automount
Desktop DF bin
Desktop Folder cores
DesktopPrinters DB dev
Developer doc
Fetch Art.app etc
Installation Log home
Library iWork '08 Install CD.dmg
Microsoft Office 2004.dmg mach
Network mach_kernel
OpenFolderListDF? mach_kernel.ctfsys
Perl_Bookshelf mds-crash-state
Presentation1.ppt net
Previous Systems.localized opt
SophosQuarantine private
StuffIt STD 703 Classic Install sbin
StuffItSTD703Classic.hqx sw
System tmp
TheVolumeSettingsFolder usr
Trash var
User Guides And Information
Some of these things (Applications, USers, System, etc) correspond to
things that you see in the Finder, some don't show, like etc, net,
usr, var
As you've probably guessed by now, unix was desinged to read like a
'if u cn rd ths, u cn mk gd mny' ad from the past :-)
But wait, as the announcer say,there's more!
ls is a command, and most unix commands have a default action, and
numerous modifiers to change how they work.
All by itself, ls just lists visible files and directories, and
doesn't really distinguish them.
There is a very useful command modifier '-l'. the dash means that waht
follows imeediately after is a command modifier, and 'l' means 'long
listing'.
if you type
ls -l
and hit return, you'll see something quite different:
dbdev2:/ johnson$ ls -l
total 1652293
drwxrwxr-x+ 172 root admin 5848 Dec 10 15:17 Applications
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 15 Apr 9 2007 Desktop (Mac
OS 9) -> /Desktop Folder
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 155648 Sep 12 11:01 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 1108754 Nov 15 2007 Desktop DF
drwxr-xr-x@ 4 johnson johnson 136 May 29 2008 Desktop Folder
-rw-r--r--@ 1 johnson admin 0 Jan 11 2008
DesktopPrinters DB
drwxrwxr-x 3 root admin 102 Dec 15 08:52 Developer
drwxr-xr-x@ 3 johnson staff 102 Sep 18 2006 Fetch Art.app
-rw-r--r--@ 1 johnson johnson 41312 Jun 30 10:11 Installation
Log
...
NOw we see all sorts of useful information.
We can tell directories (they have a 'd' at the beginning) plus much
more that is not useful right now.
(We're almost there, bear with me!)
One last addition to the ls command.
ls -al
lists everything, in long format AND lists files that start with a dot
'.' which are normally hidden in unix.
NOw you see something like this:
dbdev2:/ johnson$ ls -al
total 1655653
drwxrwxr-t@ 56 root admin 1972 Dec 15 08:52 .
drwxrwxr-t@ 56 root admin 1972 Dec 15 08:52 ..
-rw-rw-r--@ 1 root admin 15364 Dec 8 16:34 .DS_Store
drwx------ 3 root admin 102 Apr 1 2008 .Spotlight-V100
d-wx-wx-wt 3 root admin 102 Dec 8 13:32 .Trashes
-rw-r--r-- 1 root wheel 0 Nov 14
2007 .com.apple.timemachine.supported
drwx------ 178 root admin 6052 Dec 16 09:48 .fseventsd
-rw------- 1 root wheel 1703936 Oct 10 13:24 .hotfiles.btree
drwxr-xr-x@ 2 root wheel 68 Dec 25 2005 .vol
drwxrwxr-x+ 172 root admin 5848 Dec 10 15:17 Applications
lrwxr-xr-x 1 root admin 15 Apr 9 2007 Desktop (Mac
OS 9) -> /Desktop Folder
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 155648 Sep 12 11:01 Desktop DB
-rw-r--r--@ 1 root admin 1108754 Nov 15 2007 Desktop DF
Now you'll notice at the very top are directories that are called '.'
and '..'.
These are not real directories, but are like the '~' I spoke of
earlier, which are unix shortcuts.
"." means "This current directory"
".." means the directory up from here, closer to the root" (Yes, I
know that trees roots grow down, so you follow a branch down from a
leaf to the root, but please...Unix was invented by pasty white guys
sitting in dark rooms all day and night programming...forgive them if
they forgot what 'trees' and 'girlfriends' were :-)
What I want you to do is enter:
cd /
ls -al
in turn (and you can copy and paste that into the terminal window.
The copy and paste what you get into an email to the list (you can
delete lines that don't have anything to do with the lost space)
If, as Inventory X claims, that the missing space is in a directory
called "."
I will wager you'll see something like this:
dbdev2:/ johnson$ ls -al
total 1655653
drwxrwxr-t@ 56 root admin 1972 Dec 15 08:52 .
drwxrwxr-t@ 56 root admin 1972 Dec 15 08:52 ..
drwxrwxr-t@ 56 root admin 5221 Dec 15 08:52 .
But with different numbers and stuff for the second one called '.'
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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