On Dec 5, 2008, at 1:33 AM, Clark Martin wrote:

> OS X doesn't really have the concept of "blessing" and the term is
> usually not used with OS X.

That's what I thought until I read the man page for "bless" in Terminal.

This is what it says:

BLESS(8)                  BSD System Manager's Manual                  
BLESS(8)

NAME
      bless -- set volume bootability and startup disk options

SYNOPSIS
      bless --help

      bless --folder directory [--folder9 directory] [--file file]
            [--bootinfo [file]] [--bootefi [file]] [--bootBlockFile  
file]
            [--save9] [--saveX] [--use9] [--label name | --labelfile  
file]
            [--setBoot] [--openfolder directory] [--nextonly] [-- 
shortform]
            [--legacy] [--legacydrivehint device] [--options string]
            [--quiet | --verbose]

      bless --mount directory [--file file] [--setBoot] [--nextonly]
            [--shortform] [--legacy] [--legacydrivehint device]
            [--options string] [--quiet | --verbose]

      bless --device device [--label name | --labelfile file]
            [--startupfile file] [--setBoot] [--nextonly] [--shortform]
            [--legacy] [--legacydrivehint device] [--options string]
            [--quiet | --verbose]

      bless --netboot --server url [--nextonly] [--options string]
            [--quiet | --verbose]

      bless --info [directory] [--getBoot] [--plist] [--quiet | -- 
verbose]
            [--version]

DESCRIPTION
      bless is used to modify the volume bootability characteristics of
      filesystems, as well as select the active boot volume.  bless  
has 5 modes
      of execution: Folder Mode, Mount Mode, Device Mode, NetBoot  
Mode, and
      Info Mode.

      Folder Mode allows you to select a directory on a mounted volume  
to act
      as the ``blessed'' directory, which causes the system firmware  
to look in
      that directory for boot code. EFI-based systems also support a
      ``blessed'' system file, which is the primary mechanism of  
specifying the
      booter for a volume for those systems. In Folder Mode, if you  
are operat-
      ing on an HFS+ volume, the HFS+ Volume Header is updated to  
reflect these
      files/directories given.

      Mount Mode does not make permament modifications to the  
filesystem, but
      rather set the system firmware to boot from the specified  
volume, assum-
      ing it has been properly blessed. This is a subset of the  
functionality
      of Folder Mode with the --setBoot option, but is convenient when  
you
      don't want to change or interrogate the filesystem for its  
blessed sta-
      tus.

      Device Mode is similar to Mount Mode, but allows selection of  
unmounted
      filesystems, for instance while in single user mode. It can also  
perform
      certain offline modifications to the filesystem, but is not  
generally
      recommended.

      NetBoot Mode sets the system firmware to boot from the network,  
using a
      URL syntax to specify the protocol and server.  bless only sets  
the local
      system to go into NetBoot mode, and does not communicate to the  
server
      what image should be used, if there are multiple images. Some  
other mech-
      anism, such as using Startup Disk, should be used to select that.

      Info Mode will print out the currently-blessed directory of a  
volume, or
      if no mountpoint is specified, the active boot volume that the  
firmware
      is set to boot from.


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