[bma_mat99]

but the thing is that i have no idea where to start, and i do not wish to ruin my computer while trying to get it to work...

[Spheric Harlot]

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.p...ction+terminal

have fun.

[ApeInTheShell]

Unix looks intimidating with its command line interface but once I started to explore it feels like another hand to manage and install applications and files. In other words, another way to do things.

You should check out http://www.peachpit.com for books on Unix or Mac OS X. They typically sell these books in Barnes n Nobles or Borders.

If you don't have access to that much money check out the Unix forums here
Make sure not to get over your head and install the developer tools and X11. Although they are useful you'll want a basic knowledge before you deal with the more advanced stuff.

Here are the regular things I do in UNIX:

pico - a text editor to write my journal entries and defintions for class
ls - list files in the home directory
cd - change directories
man - look up manuals for different commands
top - find out what im running in the background and how much space it is taking up

Check out Apple's Help in the Terminal for more information.

[piracy]

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/lunixpanther/

[CharlesS]

I'd say if you want to avoid doing damage, be sure to never type an rm -r command that has a slash in it. If you want to do this:

rm -r /path/to/folder

do this instead:

cd /path/to
rm -r folder

Nothing sucks more than accidentally deleting your entire hard drive because you hit Return too early.

[Dale Sorel]

http://www.osxfaq.com/MAN/Index/A.ws

[Chuckit]

If I were worried about hosing my system, I'd just make an unprivileged user and play around with that. That way there's no danger of deleting anything you care about (unless you've made all your important files world-writable).

Then, of course, you can delete the user and go back to your normal one after you're comfortable in the shell.

[Brass]

Originally posted by ApeInTheShell:
ls - list files in the home directory

oops...

ls - list files in the current working directory, or a specified directory

Eg,
cd /Applications
ls

or

ls /Applications

pwd - print (ie, display) working directory (ie, current directory)
man - manual pages (ie, unix help files) - eg, "man man" to find out about the man command.

[jmiddel]

Google 'unix tutorial' or linux tutorial'. There's plenty of excellent free stuff.

[asidrane]

You don't need write permission on the file to delete it, you need write permission on the directory containing the file to delete it.

[jamesa]

Originally posted by Chuckit:
If I were worried about hosing my system, I'd just make an unprivileged user and play around with that. That way there's no danger of deleting anything you care about (unless you've made all your important files world-writable).

Then, of course, you can delete the user and go back to your normal one after you're comfortable in the shell.

this is excellent advice! Go to the Accounts preference pane in System Preferences, and click on the little plus down the bottom. Make sure the user is NOT an administrator. It seriously limits the amount of damage you can do to your machine.

There are some good links posted here, but here's another:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/ct/51

Have fun, and if you've got any questions just come back and post here.

-- james

[Millennium]

Originally posted by bma_mat99:
but the thing is that i have no idea where to start, and i do not wish to ruin my computer while trying to get it to work...

Create a new user for yourself -don't make it Administrator-class- and start playing around with the Terminal from there. There's a fair amount of neat stuff you won't be able to do from a non-Admin account, but you can move on to that once you've mastered the basics in an environment where you can't cause significant harm.