Unix for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger: Visual QuickPro Guide (2nd Edition)

As you probably have guessed, this chapter has covered only the most common ways of interacting with other machines over networks.

As you become more proficient using Unix, you may wish to tackle more-advanced forms of interaction with other machinesfor example, creating scripts to perform unattended copying of files, or setting up virtual private networks.

In this section we'll give you some pointers about where you can find information to take you further along the Unix path .

Automated (unattended) file transfers

To perform unattended file transfers, you need to learn about creating scripts (review Chapter 9, "Creating and Using Scripts") and to become familiar with one or more of the file cross-network copying tools, such as scp and rsync . Because you are likely to do your file transfer using an encrypted connection, you will also want to learn more about SSH.

Here are some resources to use in building up your knowledge and skills:

• Chapter 9.

• For more on scripts, try these two books:

  Learning the bash Shell , Second Edition, by Cameron Newham and Bill Rosenblatt (O'Reilly; www.oreilly.com/catalog/bash2)

  and

  Using csh & tcsh , by Paul DuBois (O'Reilly; www.oreilly.com/catalog/tcsh).

• The man pages for rsync , scp , sftp , ssh , and curl ( curl is especially designed for use in scripts).

• To learn more about SSH and ssh , we recommend OpenSSH (www.openssh.org), which has the addresses of e-mail discussion lists (www.openssh.org/list.html). Start by subscribing to the general list, and read it for a while before asking questions.

Virtual private networks

If you have a private network you wish to connect to another private network (perhaps you have a company with offices in two or more cities), you can lease private lines connecting the offices to create one larger network (or internetwork ). You can also connect the separate private networks through the public Internet using encrypted connections, creating a virtual private network (VPN).

Here are some resources to use in learning more about VPNs and how to set them up:

• vpnd The Virtual Private Network Daemon (http://sunsite.dk/vpnd).

• Internet Connect (located in the Applications folder) allows you to connect to a VPN.

Sharing disks with other Unix machines

The Network File System (NFS) protocol is the Unix way of doing what the Apple File Protocol (AFP) does in the traditional Macintosh worldit allows machines to mount disks on other machines over networks.

The Webmin system, which we'll describe in Chapter 11, "Introduction to System Administration," may be used to configure NFS. You can find a shareware GUI tool designed to configure NFS on Mac OS X at MBS's NFS Manager page (www.bresink.de/osx/NFSManager.html).