For example, Awesome Live Chat Desk OS X lets you provide your customers with live chat support via simple Mac notifications. Also, before we start tinkering around with it, it is probably worth taking a couple of minutes to tell you exactly what Terminal is (all in a non-technical sense, of course!). Terminal.app running under OS X (Lion). How to Quit an Application via a Mac OS X Terminal. When an application freezes, shutting down your Mac isn't always a good option, especially when there are unsaved documents open in other windows. Using Terminal is an option to force quit applications using its command line interface. An example of the Terminal output is shown below. Yes, you do need a Mac computer in order to re-codesign your app. We are currently working on a solution to accommodate customers that are not able to obtain Mac computers, but I would reach out to your. Jun 15, 2018 The code above lets you save all your screenshots as JPGs instead of the system default PNG. Killall: If you execute a Terminal command that affects any system process or app, you're going to need to reboot the process to make it take effect. 'killall' followed by the process will do so.(This is also another way to force quit misbehaving apps or processes if your Force Quit menu isn't behaving.).
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Terminal User Guide
You can use the command-line environment interactively by typing a command and waiting for a result, or you can use the shell to compose scripts that run without direct interaction.
Execute commands in the shell
If a command is located in one of the shellâs known folders, you can omit path information when entering the command name. The list of known folders is stored in the shellâs PATH environment variable and includes the folders containing most command-line tools.
For example, to run the
ls command in the current userâs home folder, enter the following at the command prompt, then press Return:
To run a command in the current userâs home folder, precede it with the folder specifier. For example, to run
MyCommandLineProg , use the following:
% ~/MyCommandLineProg
To open an app, use the open command:
When entering commands, if you get the message
command not found , check your spelling. Hereâs an example:
% opne -a TextEdit.app zsh: opne: command not found
Terminate commands
Repeat previously entered commands
The commands you enter during a session are saved so you can repeat a previously used command without retyping it.
See alsoSpecify files and folders in Terminal on MacRedirect Terminal input and output on MacDrag files into a Terminal window to specify paths on MacKeyboard shortcuts in Terminal on MacApple Developer website: Command Line Primer
Terminal may be one of the least used but most powerful apps included with a Mac. At first glance, Terminal seems to be the antithesis of the Macâs friendly GUI (Graphical User Interface), presenting instead a simple command line interface that harkens back to the days of glowing CRTs with green, amber, or whitish text, connected to some distant computer system.
(The default Terminal window, with black text on a white background.)
The Macâs Terminal app emulates the old terminals, and provides access to a UNIX shell, where you can issue commands to manipulate the UNIX system that underlies the Mac OS. The UNIX shell, in this case, a Bash shell, provides a command processor that can interpret text entered by the user. Itâs not just simple text commands you enter, such as displaying the contents of a folder, that the Bash shell can process, but also scripts, chains of commands, piping, conditional testing, variables, and more. The entire syntax that the Bash shell understands is a bit beyond this article. If youâre interested in creating shell scripts, Apple provides a developerâs guide to scripting using Terminal and the various UNIX shells.
In the first part of our introduction to Terminal, weâre going to look at Terminal with an eye to more basic usage, primarily as a way to modify the standard behavior of the Mac OS. Weâll also look at some basic file system manipulation as examples of ways to use Terminal. So, letâs get started with how to launch and configure Terminal for your use.
Launching and Configuring
The Terminal app is located at /Applications/Utilities. You can launch Terminal just like any other Mac app. Once launched, Terminal will display a window containing a title listing the current working directory, usually your home folder, the type of shell in use, such as Bash, and the window size in characters, such as 80Ã24 (80 characters across and 24 characters or lines down).
The working area of the Terminal window will initially contain just a few lines of text. On my Mac, it displays the last time I logged in (used Terminal), and then the Terminal command prompt, which consists of my Macâs name, the current directory, and the currently logged in user, ending with a $ prompt.
Just after the $ prompt is a dark rectangle that serves as Terminalâs cursor, showing the current location at which text will appear.
(Terminal after issuing the cd .. and ls commands. Note the window has been customized with a different background color.)
Letâs try our first Terminal command. At the prompt, enter:
cd ..
Then press enter or return on your keyboard.
Nothing much happened, although if you look at the Terminal window title, it changed to say Users. If you look at the prompt, it changed to show that the current working directory has changed to Users.
Thatâs because the cd command means to Change Directory, while the .. tells the command to go up one level in the directory hierarchy.
Letâs try one more command, and then move on to some Terminal configuration options.
At the prompt enter:
ls
Press enter or return.
This time, the Terminal window will produce a list of items found in the Users directory. On my Mac, I see a Shared folder, along with three user account folders. If you wanted to examine any of these folders, you could use the cd command we tried earlier, such as cd Shared. Please note Terminal is case sensitive, so Shared is not the same folder as shared. Once youâve moved to a new folder, use the ls command to view its contents.
OK, letâs move on to getting Terminal to look and operate the way you want it to.
Customize Terminal (The Inspector is an easy way to select one of the predefined profiles for the Terminal window.)
Terminal has a number of customization options that you may wish to take advantage of, starting with the basic background color and text color. Terminal comes with a number of predefined profiles that set the colors used in a Terminal window. You can try each one out by selecting Shell, New Window, and then selecting a profile name from the menu.
Thereâs an easier way to examine the various profile settings, without having to open multiple Terminal windows; instead, select Shell, Show Inspector. In the Inspector window, click the Settings button. Every premade profile will be shown; you can click on a profile and the current Terminal window will change to show the new scheme. Go ahead and click through the various profiles until you find one you like.
If you would like to always have your Terminal window use a specific profile, hereâs how to do it:
Select Preferences from the Terminal menu.
Select the General button in the Preferences toolbar.
Select On startup, open: New window with profile:
In the drop-down menu, select the Profile name you would like to use. You can always go back to the Inspector window to find the profile name you wish to use.
You can further customize a profile by selecting the Profiles button in the toolbar.
Select the Profile you wish to customize.
Click the Gear button, and select Duplicate profile.
Give the duplicate profile a new name.
(Profiles can be modified or new ones can be created using Terminal Preferences.)
The new profile will be based on the previously selected profile. You can now make changes without adversely affecting the original. We encourage you to experiment with the various settings. You can change text size, font, and color, background color, cursor style, and window size. While itâs OK to look at all the settings that can be changed, try limiting your customization to text, cursor, and window coloring for the time being. As you become more proficient with Terminal, other settings can be adjusted to meet your needs.
Now that youâve seen that Terminal can be customized to your needs, letâs take a look ahead to part two of our Terminal series.
More About Bash and Commands to Customize Your Mac
In the second installment of our miniseries on Terminal, weâre going to take a more detailed look at the Bash shell, including some tricks that make entering and repeating commands a simpler process, and how to create a simple script. Weâre also going to take a look at a number of commands that can be used to customize your Mac, including the âdefaultsâ system used by the Mac to store system and application preferences. Youâve probably seen the defaults command mentioned in various Mac tips and tricks that involve using the Terminal app.
Before we move on to part two of our Introduction to the Macâs Terminal App, weâre going to leave you with an example of the defaults command you can try out right now.
Modify the Dock to Include a Recent Items Stack (The Terminal window after the defaults command is used to modify the Dock with a new Recent Items stack.)
As far as the Mac OS is concerned, the Dock is just another app. As such, it has a number of preferences we can manipulate using the defaults command. Youâve already been using the defaults command every time you opened the Dockâs preference pane and made a change. In the background, a defaults command is executed to change a preference.
In this example, weâre going to change a preference that will enable a Recent Items stack to be created in the Dock and marked as persistent, so it will stay in the Dock from restart to restart.
At the Terminal prompt, enter the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add â{ âtile-dataâ = { âlist-typeâ = 1; }; âtile-typeâ = ârecents-tileâ; }â
You can triple-click the line above to select it, and then copy/paste the command into Terminal.
Press enter or return to execute the command.
Youâll need to restart the Dock application so it will read the changes to its preference files.
Enter the following text into Terminal:
Killall Dock
Press enter or return.
The Dock will relaunch itself. Look on the right-hand side of the Dock, near the Trash icon; there should be a new stack named Recent Applications. If you donât wish to keep the Recent Applications stack, you can drag it from the Dock to the Desktop to delete it.
See you next week for part two of our Introduction to Terminal.
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