This directory structure allows the applications to have many supporting files and resources neatly contained within them. If you look in a few, youРІР‚в„ўll see that there is some standard organization in them and that should make you feel a little warmer and possibly fuzzier about this whole situation.

You can change directory into one of these directories and look around. If you list the files from the command line ( ls -l /Applications ) they are actually directories, not simply files, and have a. When you look at the /Applications folder in a finder window, youРІР‚в„ўll see the applications listed by name such as TextEdit. If youРІР‚в„ўve never poked around at an application in OS X, itРІР‚в„ўs interesting to take a peek. In this case we want to launch the TextEdit application. Most commonly (and by default) the other user is root, the superuser of the system who can do anything to any file on the box. The sudo command line application allows a user to run another application as though they are another user. Following the steps in this recipe, you can edit a system file using TextEdit and put off learning vi for another day. An alternative is the use of TextEdit, the graphical text editor application, but under normal circumstances, you can open a system file like hosts but cannot save it. To the uninitiated, vi can cause intestinal distress and hair loss.

Typically, this is accomplished using sudo (which lets authorized users assume superuser powers, cape and tights optional) and vi. Editing some files on an OS X system requires superuser or root permissions.

How to use textedit in terminal