> > 1st - How do you set up aliases for programs for a user. Say for a user 
> > to time pico in any dir and be able to run pico instead of having to 
> > entry the path from /.
> 
> Should be set up that way anyway.  In the user's .profile (or in
> /etc/profile), try adding
> 
> PATH=$PATH':/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:.'
> 
> assuming you're using sh (recommended for beginners) and just add any
> other default search paths in the order you want them to be searched,
> separated by colons, generally with . (current directory) last.

Ack!  I wouldn't recommend the Bourne shell for beginners, how nasty! 
;-)  The C shell is usually considered to be more friendly for 
interactive use (although I prefer tcsh, personally).  BTW, I think you 
need to do an "export PATH" for the above example to work, but I could be 
wrong.

In the C shell, you'll want to add the following line to your .login:

setenv PATH {$PATH}:/usr/local/bin/:/path/to/pico:.

Or some such list.  Basically just have a colon-separated list of where 
you keep your binaries.  If you are going to have '.' in your path, make 
sure that it is last.

> > 2nd - Any suggestions on a basic content of a user .login .
> 
> Nope.  I think that's basically a "whatever you want" thing.  I hadn't
> even noticed that there was such a thing until recently.

The .login file is read by csh following the .cshrc file upon initial 
login.  Since it is more or less read only once, you should put whatever 
you want done only once in a session in there.  I generally set 
environment variables there (like my PATH), start up a mail notifier, and 
check the system uptime.

> > 3rd - The screen tends to invert black and white quite often is do to a 
> > certain terminal type ? 
> 
> try using vt100 instead of vt220.  I think that most (if not all) of those
> problems are fixed in more current kernels, but oh well.  Oh yeah, and if
> that doesn't work, assuming you're not using a Quadra, you could always
> use dt.

This is because whoever is in charge of the files in /etc decided 
(erroneously, apparently) to change the default console terminal type 
from vt100 to vt220 in /etc/ttys.  Apparently, the mac68k console driver 
does vt100 emulation, not vt220, so when it gets vt220 control codes, it 
sometimes has a little trouble.  To fix this, simply edit /etc/ttys and 
change the vt220 on the console and (more importantly) the ttye0 lines to 
a vt100.  Also, when you are asked for your terminal type, tell it to use 
vt100.

BTW, will this little bug in /etc/ttys get fixed in -current?

> > 4th - What would the best General Reference on sysadmin.
> 
> I always recommend the "other" Red Book.  It's called Unix System
> Administration Handbook, three or four authors, but I forget who.  I'm
> sure that half the people on this list either have the book or at least
> are familiar with it, so... somebody want to finish the description (can't
> find mine right now...).  :-)

This is definitely true.  The authors are Nemeth, Snyder, Seebass, and I 
think Garth, but if you check out the Meta-FAQ, it will tell you for sure:

http://www.macbsd.com/macbsd/macbsd-docs/meta-faq/

I'd also suggest that newbies check out the FAQ:

http://www.macbsd.com/macbsd/macbsd-docs/faq/

I hope this helps.

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                      ender@is.rice.edu
Consultant                                        Rice University
Information Technology Services                       Houston, TX