System Software Notes

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Advanced readline settings for bash in Terminal – Mac OS X Hints

7/1/2010 in System Software Notes, Unix Notes by face | No comments

The bash shell used in the Terminal application can be tweaked a little for better interactive experience, by saving the following lines as .intputrc in your home directory:

via Advanced readline settings for bash in Terminal – Mac OS X Hints.

The behavior of ‘bash’ is changed by more files that .bash_profile. In particular, the ‘readline’ settings are found in .inputrc – bashed my head against the wall for a while on a system that didn’t ignore case on filename completion.

inputrc

completion-ignore-case

Send websites and docs to iBooks

6/29/2010 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

With iTunes 9.2 and iOS 4, the iBooks 1.1 app for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch can store and view PDF files, together with EPUB files. If you want to quickly add a document or a web page to your Books collection in iTunes, all you need to do is to create an alias of iTunes and drag it to ~/Library/PDF Services. Now, when youre browsing the web or viewing documents and you decide that you want to read them later on a portable Apple device just hit Print, click the PDF button on the bottom left corner of the window and choose iTunes. iTunes will launch and receive the PDF. Next, sync your device and youre ready to go.

via Send websites and docs to iBooks – Mac OS X Hints.

quotefixformac

11/17/2009 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

QuoteFix is a plug-in for Mail.app which fixes some issues with replying to e-mail:

it removes the signature from the original message

it removes certain unnecessary empty lines

it positions the cursor below the original message, instead of above it (in other words, bottom-posting instead of top-posting)

via quotefixformac – Project Hosting on Google Code.

W00T

Display contextual menus on Dock click-and-hold

11/6/2009 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

To use the old-style contextual menus when you click-and-hold on an applications icon in the Dock i.e. how it worked in 10.5 and earlier, type the following two commands in Terminal dont type the $:

defaults write com.apple.dock show-expose-menus -bool no; killall Dock

All credit for this hint goes to Jeff Johnson of Lap Cat Software, who blogged about the solution. This hint is a significant update to this one, which pointed out you can use Control-click to get the old-style contextual menus. [robg adds: To undo this behavior, you can either change no to yes in the above command, or delete the key entirely with defaults delete com.apple.dock show-expose-menus; killall Dock.]

via 10.6: Display contextual menus on Dock click-and-hold – Mac OS X Hints.

10.6: Quick Look generates tables for .csv files

10/22/2009 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

Snow Leopard not only lets you preview comma-separated value (.csv) files , but it displays them with table formatting. Try it out.

via 10.6: Quick Look generates tables for .csv files – Mac OS X Hints.

hfsdebug: A Debugger for HFS Plus Volumes

9/9/2009 in System Software Notes, Utilities Notes by face | No comments

A debugger is a program that facilitates debugging, which may be casually defined as the process of finding and fixing “bugs” in the object of interest: usually a piece of software, firmware, or hardware (although debugging may apply to any domain).

via hfsdebug: A Debugger for HFS Plus Volumes.

Screen Sharing in Leopard

5/7/2009 in System Software Notes, Utilities Notes by face | No comments

As with any other network service, Screen Sharing has a set of virtual “ports” which isolate network traffic for that protocol since it and web traffic and other network services are all using the same IP address and connections. These ports must be opened in all network devices for all computers involved in the screen sharing sessions. This means firewalls on the local computer, as well as any routers or hardware firewalls must also be set up to pass traffic on the following ports:

TCP: 5900 – 5902, (3389 for connecting to Windows machines)

UDP: 4500 (for Back to My Mac users)

Depending on the network devices used, these ports can either be opened completely, or forwarded to the local IP address for the desired computer, but you will have to consult the documentation for your router to see about how to change these ports. Additionally, if your router supports “UPNP” (Universal Plug & Play) or “NAT-PMP” (NAT Port Mapping Protocol), then it should work for Back to My Mac. The list of routers in this Apple Knowledgebase article are some that support Back to My Mac and other screen sharing.

via Tutorial: Screen Sharing in Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5): How it works and how it doesn’t – MacFixIt.

I really need to get around to making the firewall behave for screen sharing.

macosxhints.com – 10.5: Disable searching for support articles in Help Viewer

3/17/2009 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

defaults write com.apple.helpviewer HVIncludesKBSearches -bool NO

via macosxhints.com – 10.5: Disable searching for support articles in Help Viewer .

Using iChat with a firewall or NAT router

1/29/2009 in System Software Notes, Utilities Notes by face | No comments

When using iChat with NAT routers and firewalls, certain ports must be open to allow video and audio conferencing behind a firewall. Some devices have these ports open by default, while others require configuration.

via Using iChat with a firewall or NAT router.

5 Login Window Tips | Mac OS X Tips

1/26/2009 in System Software Notes by face | No comments

If you find yourself with an overly long list of users in the login window or you just want to get rid of that annoying scroll bar down the side, you can stop accounts appearing in the login window.

Start by go to the Accounts pane in System Preferences, and find the “short name” of each user you want to hide. Once you have these, open up Terminal and enter the following:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow HiddenUsersList -array-add shortname1 shortname2 shortname3

via 5 Login Window Tips | General, Terminal, Finder | Mac OS X Tips.

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