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.
If you’re a Mac command line user you may have noticed that many frequently used commands entered into the Terminal (or iTerm) result in an “Operation not permitted” error message since updating to MacOS Mojave 10.14 or later. The “Operation not permitted” error in the Terminal can be seen after issuing even simple commands like … Read More
Command line users are likely familiar with using chmod to set file permissions in numerical or octal format, for example running a command like ‘chmod 755 filename’, but have you ever wondered how you can get file permissions in octal format? If you want to see or view the octal numerical value of permissions of … Read More
Some versions of Mac OS support the ability to login any user account directly to the command line right from the traditional login screen, thereby bypassing the familiar Mac user interface. Instead you’re essentially signing a user directly into the Terminal (a bit like using the ssh client to connect to an SSH server), without … Read More
The Mac operating system has several system level temporary folders which contain temp files used by MacOS itself along with various Mac apps. This temp folders are not intended to be user facing, but in some rare situations an advanced Mac user may find themselves requiring to locate the temp folder and maybe even to … Read More
If you have previously installed Homebrew to a Mac and have now decided that you no longer need or want the command line package manager, you can uninstall Homebrew from MacOS and completely remove Homebrew and all installed packages and formula from the Mac. This tutorial will walk through how to completely uninstall Homebrew from … Read More
Mac command line users may have noticed that FTP is missing from the latest versions of MacOS system software, but despite ftp not being included in newer versions of system software by default, you can still install ftp on Mac OS if you need to use an ftp client or run an ftpd server for … Read More
Every once in a while you may encounter .bin and .cue files, or a cue/bin cue sheet, of a disk image, often when downloading old Mac software (or even DOS, Windows, Linux) for a retro machine, for an audio or video disc, or just as a disk image of something. Mac users therefore may need … Read More
System Integrity Protection (SIP) locks down certain Mac OS system folders to prevent modification, execution, and deletion of critical system-level files on the Mac, even with a root user account. While the SIP security feature is enabled by default on all modern Mac OS releases, you may find yourself in various situations where you need … Read More
If you’re a Python user you may already be familiar with the handy trick that allows you to instantly create a simple web server using an easy command string entered in the command line of Mac OS. But if you’re a Mac Python user who has installed or updated to Python 3, then you will … Read More
If you have installed Homebrew on a Mac to use as a package manager for various unix and command line utilities, you’ve probably also installed a handful of packages deemed useful to you. But what if you no longer need one, and you want to remove a particular Homebrew package? It turns out that uninstalling … Read More
Many advanced users often need to find and list all hosts on a network, often for IP discovery, connecting to a remote machine, or some other system administration or network admin purpose. One of the easiest ways to find all hosts and the host IP addresses on a network is by using the nmap command … Read More
Need to use Telnet in MacOS? Well, many Mac users have discovered that Telnet has been removed from modern versions of system software, including macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave and macOS High Sierra. Presumably this is to encourage using the ssh client instead, but there are many Mac users who need Telnet for a variety … Read More
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
