Tips on Filesystems, security and al on mac os x

• mount with AFP sharepoints from the command line (thanks to this hint) :

  # mount_afp [-i] [-o options] afp_url node
  mkdir /Volumes/truc
  mount_afp afp://user:PASSWORD@server/truc /Volumes/truc
  umount /Volumes/truc
  rmdir /Volumes/truc

finder nags when changing a file's extension

• read the default value (should be 0)

  defaults read com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning

• change it:

   defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning False

Make spell check show only desired languages

• http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20090512175846504

HFS+

• Mac OS X Filesystems

• One feature of HFS volumes is that fle are referred to as links: for instance you can read a PDF file while changing the name at the same time. No problem!
• Safely remove '._' files created by HFS(+)

  find . -name '._*' -print0 | xargs -0 rm

Spotlight

• to remove the remaining index files on the volume using the command:  sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/volume_name  utilitaires CLI :

  sudo mdutil --help
  mdutil: unrecognized option `--help'
  usage: mdutil -pE volume ...
          mdutil can be used to manage the metadata stores used by Spotlight.
          -p              publish metadata for the provided volumes.
          -i (on|off)     set indexing status for the provided volumes.
          -E              erase the master copy of the metadata stores for the provided volumes.
          -s              print indexing status for the provided volumes.

System & Security

• http://www.macgeekery.com/tips/security/basic_mac_os_x_security

• Synthesis of unauthorized accesses to your machine:

  sudo grep "failed to auth" /var/log/secure.log | sed 's/^.*user \(.*\) for.*$/\1/' | sort | uniq -c

nmap

• to scan for open ports on a remote machine :

  sudo nmap -T3 -vv -sS -p 1-65535 -P0 google.com
  Starting nmap 3.81 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2006-04-05 16:32 CEST
  Initiating SYN Stealth Scan against google.com [65535 ports] at 16:32
  Discovered open port 80/tcp on google.com
  SYN Stealth Scan Timing: About 2.18% done; ETC: 16:55 (0:22:26 remaining)

Dash board

• Don't use Dashboard? No particular reason to leave it running, consuming memory. Following http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20050723123302403, you can turn Dashboard off by doing:

  defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES
  killall Dock

• Unsurprisingly, you change YES to NO to re-enable Dashboard:

  defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO
  killall Dock

Unix - X11

• http://xquartz.macosforge.org/

• install quickly http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/xquartz :

  wget http://xquartz.macosforge.org/downloads/X11-2.4.0.dmg
  sudo installer -pkg X11-2.4.0.pkg  -target /
  rm  X11-2.4.0.pkg

Change login window on (Snow) Leopard

• disrupted by the look of the plasma flames? think it looks like a cheap star trek sundae? check http://paulstamatiou.com/2007/10/31/how-to-change-leopards-login-wallpaper :

  cd /System/Library/CoreServices
  sudo rm DefaultDesktop.jpg
  #sudo mv DefaultDesktop.jpg DefaultDesktop_old.jpg # if you want to keep the Aurora stuff (it stills around, do a 'locate Aurora'
  sudo ln -s /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Nature/Stones.jpg DefaultDesktop.jpg

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