macos - Where/how to get the Mac OSX "login" command

Question

To make a long story short, my terminal was not working so a forum said to delete the "login" command in /usr/bin. It worked. Now, a month later, I am trying to install fink, and it is not working because it cannot find the "login" command.

No backup disks (grrr) The install disk is not working (I hold down "C" and it logs me in anyway)

So, I was wondering if there was somewhere I could download the unix executable or--since mac is not open source, download the source code for the login command and compile it. It would have to work on my mac (10.5.8) so I really do not know where to start.

Answer 1

"mac is not open source" is not accurate. Portions of Mac OS X are open source and the source code is available at http://opensource.apple.com. Specifically, login for Mac OS 10.5.8 is available at http://www.opensource.apple.com/source/system_cmds/system_cmds-433.8/login.tproj.

That being said, compiling system components is not really trivial, even with help from DarwinBuild. I would say your best shot is to grab a copy of the installation media. Have you tried contacting Apple (Store) support?