Interoperability fixes (Mac OS)

[chrisvanrun]

We don't fully support Mac OS env but I've seen a few challenge admins stub their toe against these. A small effort to fix these.

The date and id binary interfaces seem different for a Mac OS environment. The binary sed is, I hope, more universal. Quick test on an in-house Mac OS suggests this works.

[pkcakeout]

Randomly saw this popping up in the notification feed. Only wanted to check the pitch I am assigned to, but well:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/550305/date-command-on-mac-bash

There i a package on MacOs that you install to get the GNU-Coreutils. You need to use full paths in that case. But it might generally be easier for us to require that people install GNU coreutils and then use those? Would be my suggestion. Ties together the different evnironments.

[chrisvanrun]

Randomly saw this popping up in the notification feed. Only wanted to check the pitch I am assigned to, but well:

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/550305/date-command-on-mac-bash

There i a package on MacOs that you install to get the GNU-Coreutils. You need to use full paths in that case. But it might generally be easier for us to require that people install GNU coreutils and then use those? Would be my suggestion. Ties together the different evnironments.

Generally, YES! We don't support Mac OS. But this is just a tiny change, not making it would seem pedantic.

[amickan]

LGTM