The command line interface is an alternate method of interacting with macOS and Mac OS X, relying on text based command entry to execute commands and perform tasks. It is accessed on the Mac by using the Terminal application. Generally, the command line is considered advanced, and thus it’s usage tends to be more complex than many standard procedures on a Mac.
Have you ever wondered where Homebrew puts the binaries from brew packages that are installed on a Mac? If you’re a Homebrew user, you may be interested in knowing where Homebrew puts everything and where to find the installed brew packages in Mac OS. We’ll show you the directory path where Homebrew keeps packages, and … Read More
Node JS is the popular Javascript runtime environment that is widely used by many developers, and npm is the accompany package manager for the Node.js environment and Javascript. When you install Node.js, you will find npm is installed as well, thus if you want npm you need to install NodeJS. There are several ways to … Read More
If you’re a regular VirtualBox user, you may appreciate knowing how to convert an ISO image file (.iso) into a VDI Virtual Box image file (.vdi). Converting an iso to vdi is different from simply booting VirtualBox from an iso, instead it is taking an .iso image, for example of a live boot image, and … Read More
Python is a popular programming language that is widely used by beginners and longtime developers alike. Modern Mac OS versions come with Python 2.7.x installed (or Python 2.6.1 if an older Mac OS X version), but many Python users may need to update Python in Mac OS to a newer version like Python 3.8.x or … Read More
Advanced Mac users that utilize the command line may occasionally encounter a “command not found” error message when attempting to run something in the command line. The “command not found” error in the Terminal can surface for several reasons in the command line of MacOS and Mac OS X, as we’ll discuss here, and of … Read More
Extended Attributes are metadata components that can be unique to specific files and file types on Mac OS. Those extended attributes can be anything from identifying data about the file itself, to quarantine information, origin data, label information, amongst other types of metadata. Sometimes, advanced Mac users may review extended attributes for a file, or … Read More
Need to write an image file to an SD card? The command line ‘dd’ tool can do that for you, writing a disk image .img file to an SD card with minimal effort. A nice perk to using ‘dd’ for writing image files to an SD card is that it works for Mac OS as … Read More
The grep command line tool is wildly useful for searching through text data for lines and snippets that match a defined string, character, word, or regular expression. While most uses of grep are for sorting data for syntax matches, what if you want to exclude a word or string with grep instead? Excluding line matches … Read More
Advanced Mac users, administrators, and developers who wish to test Mac OS in 64-bit mode can do so with the help of a terminal command. Essentially this will only allow 64-bit applications and processes to run on the Mac, which can be helpful for discovering what (if any) apps, tasks, components, processes, and items may … Read More
If you’re an advanced Mac user who spends a considerable amount of time at the command line, you likely have Homebrew installed by now. So, how about sharing a list of some of the best Homebrew packages available for Mac users?
Want to horse around in the Terminal? If you have already finished watching Star Wars in ASCII from the command line, you have Rickrolled the Terminal dozens of times, and you’re done watching The Matrix style scrolling screens of text gibberish, and the scrolling screens of poop emoji is no longer cutting the mustard, perhaps … Read More
Do you frequently access the detailed printing options when printing from a Mac? If so, you’ll really appreciate this trick to always show the expanded print dialog window and settings screen.
If you’re a command line user, you can imagine that it’d be useful to have a Terminal window available instantly to you from anywhere on the Mac, whether you’re currently in the Finder, Safari, Xcode, or any other application entirely. Well there’s no need to imagine, with iTerm you can have an instantly available terminal … Read More
Advanced Mac users may appreciate using the Homebrew package manager, which greatly simplifies the process of installing command line software and tools on a Mac. For example, if you want to easily install favorite command line tools on a Mac like cask, htop, wget, nmap, tree, irssi, links, colordiff, or virtually any other familiar unix … Read More
Need to quickly compare two files for differences? The command line ‘diff’ tool offers a great choice for users comfortable with the Terminal. Diff allows you to easily compare two files, with the command output reporting back any differences between the inputted files. The diff command is available by default on the Mac, and it … Read More
Ever wished you had a native command line in iOS? You know, like a Terminal app for iPad and iPhone? Wish no more, the aptly named Terminal for iOS is here, and it’s free! Terminal is a sandboxed command line environment for iOS that has over 30 commands currently available, covering many of the most … Read More
Need to get the line count of a text file or document? Counting lines of any file is easy at the command line, and the command for line counting is the same in all modern Unix based operating systems, meaning this line counting trick will work the same on Mac OS and Mac OS X, … Read More
Need to reset and clear DNS cache in macOS High Sierra? Some Mac users may need to occasionally reset their local DNS cache, typically because the Mac DNS settings have changed, or a particular name server or domain is cached and they need to flush existing DNS cache. While it’s most often web developers, systems … Read More
