• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Upgrade OS X to El Capitan

    Installing OS X has never been easier than in Yosemite. In this article, we’ll look at upgrading a Mac from OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) to OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) to . The first thing you should do is clone your system. The second thing you should do is make sure you have a good backup. The third thing you should do is make sure you can swap back to the clone should you need to do so and that your data will remain functional on the backup. Once you’re sure that you have a fallback plan, let’s get started by downloading OS X El Capitan from the App Store. Once downloaded, you’ll…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    Bash History Fun

    We tend to use a lot of commands in the Terminal app. That is, after all, what it’s there fore. And there’s a nice history of what we do. There are also a number of ways to view and manage the bash history. The simplest of which is the history command, which will show the previous commands run. Here, we’ll simply run it: history Keep in mind that this shows the history based on context, so if you sudo bash, you’ll potentially see a different history. You can also use the bash built-in fc command, which has the additional awesomeness of being able to edit and re-run commands from the…

  • Mac OS X,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    Removing Those Thousands Of Empty Directories In Bash

    Earlier, we looked at creating thousands of empty directories. Today, we’re going to get rid of them. But we need to get rid of only empty directories. To do so, we’ll use the find command: find . -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \; Now, we can put both into a script: mkdir $(printf '%05d\n' {1..10000}) find . -depth -type d -empty -exec rmdir {} \;

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Disable File Extension Change Warning Dialog

    By default in OS X, when you change an extension for a file, you get a warning. This is somewhat annoying to me, as I do this pretty frequently and have never almost accidentally done so. So to disable, send a FXEnable ExtensionChangeWarning key into com.apple.finder as false: defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning -bool false To then undo, simply run with a true key: defaults write com.apple.finder FXEnableExtensionChangeWarning -bool true

  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Destroy Open Directory Servers Using The Server App

    You can destroy an LDAP server using the Server app (and still using slapconfig -destroyldapserver). To do so, open the Server app and click on Open Directory. Then click on the Open Directory server in the list of servers. When prompted to destroy the LDAP Master, click on Next. When asked if you’re sure, click Continue. When asked if you’re really, really sure, click Destroy. Wait.

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Use a Keystroke to Maximize Finder Windows In OS X

    The Maximize jelly in OS X that makes a screen the full size that the screen should be is great. The command that it runs is called Zoom. There’s another one to minimize screens, as well. The minimize has a keystroke mapped of Command-Shift-M. I use it all the time. You can also map a keystroke to make the windows bigger, invoking that Zoom command. Sometimes, when I plug and unplug the monitor on my desk at work at take my laptop home, I end up with windows stuck where the jellies (what those little buttons in the top corner of the screen are called) are above the menu bar…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    Yosemite and statshares in smbutil

    The statshares option has an -m option to look at a mount path for showing the path to the mount (e.g. if the mount is called krypted this should be something like /Volumes/krypted): smbutil statshares -m /Volumes/krypted When run, you see a list of all the attributes OS X tracks for that mount path, including the name of the server, the user ID (octal), how SMB negotiated an authentication, what version of SMB is running (e.g. SMB_1), the type of share and whether signing, extended security, Unix and large files are supported. Additionally, if you’d like to see the attributes for all shares, use the -a option after statshares: smbutil…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Network Infrastructure

    Directory Utility in Yosemite. I’m not Dead Yet… Mapping Attributes 101

    The Directory Utility application has moved to /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications. Once open, you can use it to bind to directory services, change search policies and even dink around with NIS if you still rock the flannel with your ripped up jeans. But, the thing that I tend to do in Directory Utility the most is look at user and group attributes. To do so, open Directory Utility and click on the Directory Editor tab. In the bar directly below, you’ll see Viewing and In Node. The Viewing option is what type of object you’re going to look at. The In Node option shows the directory domain you’re viewing. Below, we show the local users in…

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment

    Upgrade to OS X Yosemite

    Installing OS X has never been easier than in Yosemite. In this article, we’ll look at upgrading a Mac from OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) to OS X 10.10 (Yosemite). The first thing you should do is clone your system. The second thing you should do is make sure you have a good backup. The third thing you should do is make sure you can swap back to the clone should you need to do so and that your data will remain functional on the backup. Once you’re sure that you have a fallback plan, let’s get started by downloading OS X Yosemite from the App Store. Once downloaded, you’ll see Install…