Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By : Herta Nava
Book Image

The macOS User Administration Guide

By: Herta Nava

Overview of this book

Apple is pushing the capabilities of its technologies to help users achieve high performance, including improvements in its OS running across all Mac systems, macOS, and new technologies such as M1 Silicon chips. This book walks you through macOS from a system administration and support point of view, exploring its latest features. The book starts by explaining macOS architecture, installation, and startup processes to enable you to get started with the OS. You'll learn how to manage users and discover techniques for user security and privacy. Moving on, you'll get to grips with the macOS file system and learn to manage disks, volumes, and partitions for effective file management. Most of the examples covered in this book are from an administrator's perspective; however, when relevant, a standard user's perspective is also presented. You'll find illustrations for Mac systems running macOS 11 (Big Sur), and when necessary, for macOS 10.15 (macOS Catalina). Finally, you'll explore advanced topics such as networking and using command-line tools for administration tasks. By the end of this macOS book, you'll be well-versed with macOS features, administration tasks, and best practices. You'll also be able to apply the concepts to increase your chances of success in obtaining Apple certifications such as Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP).
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
18
About Packt

Understanding system resources

In general, system resources in the macOS environment are files needed by the operating system and the software installed on your computer to function properly and provide the expected functionality. These resources are located across the filesystem we explored in Chapter 6, The macOS File System: Disks, Volumes, and Partitions, and they include a variety of files such as utilities, fonts, extensions, and more. Understanding what these resources do and where they are located is important for you to be familiar with how macOS functions and for troubleshooting.

Most macOS system resources are located in the user and local Library folders in the system volume. Precisely, the Library folders keep user and system resources organized and separated from the rest of the files. This is why application and user data is also found in these folders. This is intentional so that the Applications and user home folders that are frequently accessed by users don't contain...