Install GNU core utils
The GNU core utils is light years ahad of the BSD utils that come with
Mac OS X. The GNU equivalents of find, date & friends have many
more feature and generally have so much better defaults than their Mac
OS X counterparts. Installing this is something you definitely want.
Using Mac Ports
First off, install the GNU core utils, GNU awk and GNU sed so that we can get most of the basic command line power we're used to from GNU/Linux:
$ sudo port install gawk gsed coreutils
Using brew
If you're using brew the equivalent is:
$ sudo brew install coreutils gnu-getopt gnu-tar gnu-sed gawk
While you're at it, you probably want to install a more updated version of BASH as well:
$ sudo brew install bash
Read this article for more instructions on how to install GNU coreutils using brew.
Preferring GNU coreutils over BSD utils
Prefer GNU core utils over the ancient BSD utils that come
with Mac. Add this to your.bashrc:
export PATH=/opt/local/libexec/gnubin:$PATH
A wee test to see if the GNU core utils have taken precedence on your system is to run:
$ date --iso
If it returns a date like 2012-03-01, you're homefree
Spell checking
I cannot live without aspell, so I also install
this:
$ sudo port install aspell aspell-dict-en aspell-dict-uk
Emacs
Install the latest, full
graphical GNU Emacs for Mac OS X and let
it answer to the standard /usr/bin/emacs:
$ sudo mv /usr/bin/emacs /usr/bin/emacs.mac-os-x
$ sudo ln -s /Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/MacOS/Emacs /usr/bin/emacs
Now, whenever you type emacs, the latest and greatest GNU Emacs
version will open and not the old and outdated version that comes
bundled with Mac OS X.
A better terminal
I recommend installing iTerm 2 as it's far better than the Terminal application that comes with OS X as standard. If you come from Linux, you'll find many features you miss after moving to Mac land in iTerm 2.
