Category Archives: Mac OS

Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” Seems to Have a Broken Python easy_install

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One of the first things I needed after upgrading to Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) was to make some Python scripts work. However easy_install seemed to be broken: 

$ easy_install psycopg2
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/easy_install", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2607, in <module>
    parse_requirements(requires), Environment()
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: setuptools==0.6c12dev-r88795
I fixed this by installing Distribute and then the new Mac OS X Developer Tools.

 

New iPhone 3G S

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So I bought a new 32GB iPhone 3G S this morning at a Rogers Plus store. Was painless and, since I give them so much money each month, I received the $299 pricing.

Different from last time is that the staff activated the phone before handing it over.

I plugged it into iTunes which offered to restore my previous unit’s backup and I’m good to go. Smooth!

Fancy Auto-Launching in Leopard

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As mentioned in a previous post, Leopard uses launchd to automatically launch ssh-agent when needed. I just noticed that it does exactly the same thing for X11!

Try it: type xeyes in a Terminal window and watch X11.app magically launch itself. Very smooth. Relevant configuration is quite simple:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict>        <key>Label</key><string>org.x.X11</string>        <key>Program</key><string>/usr/X11/X11.app/Contents/MacOS/X11</string>        <key>Sockets</key>                <dict>                <key>:0</key>                <dict><key>SecureSocketWithKey</key><string>DISPLAY</string></dict>        </dict>        <key>ServiceIPC</key><true/></dict></plist>

For more information on launchd, see the following man pages: launchd(8), launchctl(1) and launchd.plist(5).

A nice feature I was not aware of is the ability to put user-specific agent definitions in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, very cool.

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Quick Look on the CLI

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A quick tip about using the qlmanage command to see the Quick Look preview of a file from the command line. Define this shell function: 

ql(){
qlmanage -p $@ 2>/dev/null
}
Then you can invoke it as ql FILENAME when needed. Use C-c to exit.

Update: Scott left a great suggestion to use $@ instead of $1. This allows you to bring Quick Look up for multiple files. (It even provides a contact sheet view, nice.) Thanks Scott!

SSH Agent in Leopard

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I received and installed Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard on Friday, now I’m getting used to it and will be posting a series of short notes about interesting features as they appear.

One of the first things I noticed is that Leopard seems to start ssh-agent at login. A little more digging reveals that this is due to a LaunchAgent provided by Apple:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN""http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>org.openbsd.ssh-agent</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/usr/bin/ssh-agent</string>
                <string>-l</string>
        </array>
        <key>ServiceIPC</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Sockets</key>
        <dict>
                <key>Listeners</key>
                <dict>
                        <key>SecureSocketWithKey</key>
                        <string>SSH_AUTH_SOCK</string>
                </dict>
        </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

The above causes the agent to be dynamically launched only when you actually need it. That is really cool!

Updated: I just read this hint which mentions that there is also a nice Cocoa ssh-ask-pass in Leopard! Funny thing is that I had seen the dialog a few times without noticing it at all, it seems to just be a normal occurrence. :-)