Finding Related Information

Distributions of Mac OS X come with reference pages stored online. You can read these documents by using the info (page 30) or man (page 28) utilities, with the documentation browser in Xcode, or with the Mac Help application. You can read man and info pages to get more information about specific topics while reading this book or to determine which features are available with Mac OS X. You can search for topics by using apropos (see page 59 or give the command man apropos). The Apple support site (www.apple.com/support) has many useful links.

Documentation

Good books are available on various aspects of using and administrating UNIX systems in general. In addition, you may find the sites listed in Table B-1 useful.^[1]

^[1] The right-hand columns of most of the tables in this appendix show Internet addresses (URLs). All sites have an implicit http:// prefix unless ftp:// or https:// is shown. Refer to "URL: Uniform Resource Locator" on page 421.

Table B-1. Documentation

Site	About the site	URL
Apple Manuals	Apple manuals (look under Software Manuals/Mac OS X in a box on the right).	www.apple.com/support/manuals
GNU Manuals	GNU manuals.	www.gnu.org/manual
Internet FAQ Archives	Searchable FAQ archives.	www.faqs.org
Info	Instructions for using the info utility.	www.gnu.org/software/texinfo/manual/info
RFCs	Request for Comments; see RFC (page 951).	www.rfc-editor.org
The Linux Documentation Project	All things related to Linux documentation (in many languages): HOWTOs, guides, FAQs, man pages, and magazines. This is the best overall source for Linux documentation. Make sure to visit its Links page.	www.tldp.org

Useful UNIX Sites

Sometimes the sites listed in Table B-2 are so busy that you cannot log in. When this happens, you are usually given a list of alternative, or mirror, sites to try.

Table B-2. Useful Mac OS X sites

Site	About the site	URL
Apple Developer Connection	A site for developers; includes information on Intel-based Macintosh systems.	developer.apple.com
Darwin	The Darwin (OS X UNIX) home page.	opendarwin.org developer.apple.com/darwin
GNU	GNU Project Web server.	www.gnu.org
ibiblio	A large library and digital archive. Formerly Metalab; formerly Sunsite.	www.ibiblio.org
MacAddict	A magazine with reviews, tips, and articles about the Macintosh.	www.macaddict.com
MacFixit	A user site full of tips, trivia, and troubleshooting help for the Macintosh.	www.macfixit.com
Mac User Groups	Apple's registry of Macintosh user groups includes a searchable database.	www.apple.com/usergroups/ www.apple.com/usergroups/find/
System Administrators Guild (SAGE)	SAGE is a group for system administrators.	www.sage.org
Sobell	The author's home page contains useful links, errata for this book, code for many of the examples in this book, and answers to selected exercises.	www.sobell.com
Threads	Linux Documentation Project threads FAQ.	tldp.org/FAQ/Threads-FAQ
USENIX	A large, well-established UNIX group. This site has many links, including a list of conferences.	www.usenix.org
VersionTracker	A searchable site covering new releases of software packages.	www.versiontracker.com
X.Org	The X Window System home.	www.x.org

Mac OS X Newsgroups and Forums

One of the best ways to obtain specific information is through a newsgroup. Frequently you can find the answer to your question by reading postings to the newsgroup. Try using Google Groups (groups.google.com) to search through newsgroups to see whether your question has already been asked and answered. Or open a newsreader program and subscribe to appropriate newsgroups. If necessary, you can post your question for someone to answer. Before you do so, make sure you are posting to the correct group and that your question has not been answered already. There is an etiquette to posting questionsfor a good paper written by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen, "How To Ask Questions the Smart Way," see www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html.

The newsgroup comp.sys.mac.system provides postings of solutions to common problems and periodic postings of the most up-to-date versions of the FAQ and similar documents.

Apple Discussions (discussions.info.apple.com) has a list of online forums including a section on Mac OS X and Related Software.

Mailing Lists

Subscribing to a mailing list allows you to participate in an electronic discussion. With most lists, you can send and receive email dedicated to a specific topic to and from a group of users. Moderated lists do not tend to stray as much as unmoderated lists, assuming the list has a good moderator. The disadvantage of a moderated list is that some discussions may be cut off when they get interesting if the moderator deems that the discussion has gone on for too long. Mailing lists described as bulletins are strictly unidirectional: You cannot post information to these lists but can only receive periodic bulletins. If you have the subscription address for a mailing list but are not sure how to subscribe, put the word help in the body and/or header of email that you send to the address. You will usually receive instructions via return email. You can also use a search engine to search for mailing list mac os x.

Apple supports many mailing lists. Visit www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo to find a list of mailing lists; click on the name of a list to display relevant subscription information.

Words

Many dictionaries, thesauruses, and glossaries are available online. Table B-3 lists a few of them.

Table B-3. Looking up words

Site	About the site	URL
ARTFL Project: ROGET'S Thesaurus	Thesaurus	humanities.uchicago.edu/forms_unrest/ROGET.html
DICT.org	Multiple database search for words	www.dict.org
Dictionary.com	Everything related to words	www.dictionary.com
DNS Glossary	DNS glossary	www.menandmice.com/online_docs_and_faq/glossary/glossarytoc.htm
FOLDOC	Computer terms (Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing)	www.foldoc.org
Merriam-Webster	English language	www.m-w.com
OneLook	Multiple-site word search with a single query	www.onelook.com
The Jargon File	An online version of The New Hacker's Dictionary	www.catb.org/~esr/jargon
Webopedia	Commercial technical dictionary	www.webopedia.com
Wikipedia	An open-source (user-contributed) encyclopedia project	wikipedia.org
Wordsmyth	Dictionary and thesaurus	www.wordsmyth.net
Yahoo Reference	Search multiple sources at the same time	education.yahoo.com/reference

Software

There are many ways to learn about interesting software packages and their availability on the Internet. Table B-4 lists sites that you can download software from. Another way to learn about software packages is through a newsgroup (page 911).

Table B-4. Software

Site	About the site	URL
afp548	Long-time distributor of essays and tools	www.afp548.com
BitTorrent	BitTorrent efficiently distributes large amounts of static data	www.bittorrent.com
bombich.com	Home of Carbon Copy Center and other useful tools	bombich.com
CVL	Concurrent Versions Librarian, a GUI for CVS	www.sente.ch/software/cvl
CVS	Concurrent Versions System (see also CVL and TkCVS)	www.nongnu.org/cvs developer.apple.com/internet/opensource/cvsoverview.html
ddd	The ddd utility is a graphical front end for command line debuggers such as gdb	www.gnu.org/software/ddd
fink	The fink utility builds and installs software automatically	fink.sourceforge.net
Free Software Directory	Categorized, searchable lists of free software	www.gnu.org/directory savannah.gnu.org
Freshmeat	A large index of OS X software	osx.freshmeat.net
gcc	Home page for the GNU C compiler	www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html
gdb	The gdb utility is a command line debugger	www.gnu.org/software/gdb
IceWALKERS	Categorized, searchable lists of free software	www.icewalkers.com
Network Calculators	Subnet mask calculator	www.subnetmask.info
SourceForge	A development Web site with a large repository of open-source code and applications	sourceforge.net
splint	C program verifier (replaces lint)	www.gnu.org/software/gcc/gcc.html
TkCVS	A CVS GUI	www.twobarleycorns.net/tkcvs.html
versiontracker	A large index of OS X software	www.versiontracker.com/osx