Some of the Same Maintenance and Cleanup Tasks

For elite geeks only.

Get It Try It

You can't have everything: a new version of Cocktail is upon the world. This one promising 'now fighting trojans and other bad guys'. Oh whoa. That's heady stuff. It basically means it has the CLIX/Unix scripts embedded somewhere. All nine of them. Although there's nothing at all about this in the release notes.

The app seems to be the 'same old same old' with 18 typically retarded Automator actions, 14 retarded AppleScripts, 24 bold Unix shell scripts, and - scary stuff - nine embedded startup items. You know: the kind that run as single user mode root?

They're actually a treat to inspect. They're all about optimising 'network performance' and are disguised as 'tar' files (for one good reason) and they're all set to open as a directory 'Cocktail'. This genius AppleScript app is set to remove the 'Cocktail' directory once the appointed task completes. You'll. Never. Be. Told.

They're all about sysctl. This stuff can be done so easily from the command line (where you can run sudo with no risks as opposed to inside this monster).

Bluetooth.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=2097152
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.newreno=1
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=262144
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=262144
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.slowlink_wsize=108040
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.sendspace=65535

CableModem1.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=73728

Custom.tar

[Empty file.]

Default.tar

[Empty file.]

Dialup.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=3072
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=2048

DSL.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=73728

Fiber.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=358400
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=131072
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=73728

Satellite1.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=524288
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.rfc1323=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=73728
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.recvspace=65535
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.sendspace=65535

Satellite2.tar

/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  kern.ipc.maxsockbuf=524288
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.delayed_ack=0
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.tcp.sendspace=65536
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.maxdgram=57344
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.inet.udp.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.recvspace=256960
/usr/sbin/sysctl -w  net.local.stream.sendspace=65535

Wasn't that easy enough? Just a bunch of sysctl commands! Pretty easy alright!

And so forth. Peeking into the embedded 'Shell' directory to see how this pseudo-program shuffles chairs on the deck of the Titanic is left as an exercise for the reader. As you'll see: it's a way of making lots and lots of log files. About as useful for the ordinary Mac punter as fixing prebindings.

As expected none of the 'real' binaries (which mostly contain AppleScript calls) are proper release builds. 20% is debug junk the author doesn't know how to clear away. Oh well. You know you can't expect much from an AppleScript kiddie.

But this in and of itself - as meaty as it sounds - is not enough to get mention in The Technological. No - much more is needed!

Those Intrepid Folks

Mike Schramm did his typical shill piece on 9 February, telling everyone what a great deal this upgrade was. And he calls scripter Kristiof Szymanski 'those intrepid folks'. Wild! Cocktail is 'bringing more utility than ever' and it's 'extremely popular' and it's a 'versatile Unix function and OS X tweaking app'.

There ya go! And if people want to shell out $15 for the classic bait and switch app for the Mac then by all means let them. Of course if you want a free alternative and the doctors have already scheduled your lobotomy then you can still avail of OnyX. It's free and essentially works the same way. But. It's. Free.

The real killer is Schramm's closing graf.

For those elite geeks who feel like going free of charge and foregoing the pleasant interface to the UNIX underpinnings of Mac OS X, you can accomplish some of the same maintenance and cleanup tasks with CLIX.

There's no mention of OnyX at all. If you want doodads to click on you're going to have to shell out $15 for Cocktail. Pulling the wool over people's eyes like that is just totally immoral.

Schramm's transparency: he doesn't realise Cocktail is just a concoction of Unix anyway; and that CLIX is merely an engine for archiving and running whatever commands you like.

Take all the above 'network optimisation' scripts hidden inside Cocktail and wrap them into CLIX commands. Do this just for the fun of it even if you don't want to use them.

Then drop Mike Schramm a line and recommend a book on Unix. And hope he's better on his Strat than he is at technology. Though the odds are presently low: this one's got no strings on it. But don't tell him. Let him figure it out himself.

This is how it works.

• Back in the early days of this millennium those new to OS X were often also new to Unix.
• With only The Fucking Finder™ to help them they weren't likely to know about esoteric disk directories such as /usr/sbin where all the good stuff hangs out.
• Many of these punters thought they were getting something for free - above and beyond what their Apple operating system already offered them.
• But they weren't - because it was already there - they'd already paid for it once.
• Now they were getting bamboozled into paying for it again.

But that was back in the first days of the millennium - nearly nine years ago.

Check this out. Give it time to sink in.

• If you can do it in Unix on your Apple box you might be able to do it with Cocktail (or OnyX).
• If you can do it in Unix on your Apple box you can always do it with CLIX.
• And if the command you want isn't already there you simply write it yourself.

Of course you might always get lucky and find someone else to do it for you. But that's in theory only of course.

Click on Mike Schramm and his unstrung Strat to get lucky. Click on CLIX below to get luckier still.

Now go out and really fight the bad guys.