Enabling Root Access

I wasn't aware of this until a few day ago, perhaps because I was too busy using my new MacBook to delve into the file structure, but there are a whole slew of files that are not accessible via the Finder. Apparently, you can only get at them if you "Enable Root Access".

On Leopard:

1. Open the Directory Utility: In the Finder, navigate to the Utilities folder (tip: click on the desktop, hit Cmd+Shift+U).
2. Click on the padlock to allow edits.
3. Go Edit > Enable Root Password
4. Enter and re-enter your password.

I found this out here!

The protected files on your system still won't be accessible via the Finder, and unless there is a setting I'm not aware of yet to enable that, the best way I've found so far to edit these files is by using TextWrangler, a free editor you can download here! Fire up TextWrangler and navigate to File > Open Hidden ...

You can also access them via the Terminal, if you like using the command line. I'm almost sure there must be a way to manipulate these files with a UI of some sort, but I haven't found that yet.