On 7 Aug 2010, at 10:27, Kassen wrote:
However that's A) rare and B) not a issue with the terminal as such.
No, it is 'sudo'...
Ok.
Sorry, it was a rhetorical agreement, same as "yes". Ambiguous, like in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JrIYR8jArk
However, sudo is a tool to protect the installation against unauthorised modifications.
Actually, not: it is just a shortcut to become root; try 'sudo -s'. Though restrictions can be implemented, that is not so in Mac OS X. In addition, when one does a 'sudo', it is valid for a few minutes, which can be exploited by malware, by trying every minute if the user has enabled root permissions.
Wherever this directory is; its normal that all executables are kept in a certain directory and that sudo is needed to mark a file as executable and place it there. Sudo isn't -imho- the right tool to either protect the hardware against damage or support personnel from tricky questions.
On the other hand, whenever you install something on Mac OS X, and is asked for the password, one is in effect doing the same thing as a 'sudo', becoming root. So one should never do that unless one trust the software.
If we look here; http://www.apple.com/macosx/what-is-macosx/core-foundation.html
We read; UNIX power users will feel at home in Darwin, the robust BSD environment ...
FYI: Though it derives from FreeBSD, it is now certified UNIX (Intel 1.5 and later).
...that underlies Mac OS X and is accessible from the Terminal application. All of the common UNIX utilities, command shells, and scripting languages are included in Mac OS X, including Perl, PHP, tcl, Ruby, and Python. And Mac OS X provides a set of optimized libraries, making it easy to port your existing UNIX code.
To me that sounds at odds with claiming that Edward here can't install ChucK without voiding his warranty.
I think there was a confusion in the communications, since he went and asked them in the first place. :-)
Yes; sudo could damage stuff, but then so can cars, claw-hammers and kitchen-knives. That doesn't meant we should abstain from driving, carpentry and cooking.
Yes, I was independently think about the kitchen-knife analogy. And as noted above, people in effect do a 'sudo' whenever they install something requiring a password. This includes frequent system updates.
Instead I'd suggest that Edward either stick to the installation instructions or look into one of the many books or online tutorials about the bash terminal; there are even quite a few aimed specifically about bash in a OSX context.
I suspect he has absolutely no knowledge about the console (Terminal). Therefore, to start with it, it might be safest to put it into ~/bin/. It is good with this discussion - ChucK with strange downloading comments, is directed to the console-savvy user, in effect shutting others out.