Technically speaking, Open Directory is an LDAP database that can be used to store information about users, contacts, computers, groups (of all of the above) and other devices. The reason we do not call Open Directory LDAP is that it also has other components. These include Kerberos for single sign-on, SASL for integration with other services and password server, to keep the passwords you use secure.
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Mac OS X: Portable Home Directories and Backup
Portable Home Directories and Mobility are not substitutes for backing up your computers. Think about the synchronization the same way you might consider a RAID. In a RAID if you delete data from the RAID then it is lost. Same goes for Mobile Homes…
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ps
Limit process listing to those belonging to a given user by piping the output through grep. For example, processes belonging to a user with a username charles can be displayed with the following: ps -ef | grep charles The -l option generates a long listing, and when used together with the -e and -f options creates a table with 15 columns, which can also be piped for the user name: ps -efl | grep charles
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My Next Book
It’s official, my next book will be on Mac OS X Security!!! Look for it in bookstores near you. 😉
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Managing SMB Using Defaults
One of the biggest issues that a number of large environments have is controlling what client systems are able to see on a network. In these types of environments, limiting the number of Windows file servers that show up can be a show stopper. So Apple has given us an option in the com.apple.smb.server.plist file for RegisterWINSName. By default it isn’t there, but when you use the following command and then restart smb it will suppress your system from the list of servers: defaults write /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server RegisterWINSName -bool false You can also use com.apple.smb.server to change the NetBIOS name and server description.
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Mac OS X: Showing Invisible Files
I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal Have you ever been looking for some files an you just can’t find them. Well, maybe they’re hidden. If you need to see hidden files, use the following command:defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true killall Finder The problem with seeing hidden files is that you see a lot of stuff that you really probably don’t want to see. So to get back to a state where you don’t have to see all of the invisible files, use the following command: defaults delete com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles killall Finder
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Mac OS X: Loading and Unloading with launchd
In Mac OS X you can use cron to schedule tasks but you can also use launchd. To use launchd to load or unload an agent where you’ve setup a task use the launchctl command. Here we will use launchctl to manually start a process given that we defined a plist called /Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OpenProgram.plist (where program is maybe the name of some program you want to fire up): launchctl load Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OpenProgram.plist Your application should fire up now. Do not quit it for ten seconds. Wait about 15, then quit it. Notice it start up again. This is because it is a launchAgent and will restart any time it is closed. Now…
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TrueCrypt
Great encryption software, although there is no full disk encryption for the Mac from TrueCrypt I hope to see it eventually. By the way, I didn’t mention this yet: it’s free. http://www.truecrypt.org/ UPDATE: While TrueCrypt does not do full disk encryption (FDE) for the boot volume still, it does do FDE for other volumes fairly easily and of course free. If you need FDE for boot volumes on Mac OS X check out PGP and CheckPoint FDE. PGP Desktop is easy to install and use and has a great command line interface. CheckPoint though seems to be a bit more mature and has an easier methodology for mass deployment.
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Add Amavis schema to LDAP
To add the amavis schema to your LDAP config, edit your slapd.conf file to include the following line: include /etc/ldap/schema/amavis.schema
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Firefox & Privacy
One aspect of Firefox that for now is superior to that of most browsers is the ability handle data that should be kept private. To enable the privacy features of Firefox on the Mac, click on the Firefox menu while Firefox is open and then click on Preferences. From here, click on the Privacy icon in the Firefox toolbar and then click on Always clear my private data when I close Firefox. This will clear cache, temp files, etc each time that Firefox is closed. You can alternatively clear private data manually by clicking on Clear Private Data… from the Tools menu when you have Firefox open. This will clear…