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
SF Mono is a really nice monospaced font available to Mac users within Terminal and Xcode, but you may have noticed that SF Mono is not available outside of those two apps. If you’d like to use SF Mono font elsewhere in MacOS and in other Mac apps, follow the instructions below to install the … 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
If you have a Touch Bar equipped MacBook Pro and you’re a frequent command line user, you may appreciate a trick that allows you to use Touch ID to authenticate sudo and su, rather than typing out your password in the Terminal like some kind of digital neanderthal.
Some Mac users may need to access iCloud Drive from the Terminal in Mac OS. But if you have tried to access iCloud Drive via command line on your own, you may have noticed it does not appear in the user Home directory. This is because iCloud Drive is actually locate elsewhere in Mac OS, … Read More
Advanced Mac users may wish to shut down a computer from the command line. This can be helpful for remote administration with ssh, in situations where a Mac is booted into Single User Mode, or many other circumstances of troubleshooting and systems administration. There are several ways to shut down a Mac from the command … Read More
Have you ever wished you could access a mapping application from the command line? Now you can with Mapscii, which is sort of like Google Maps or Apple Maps but for the Terminal, with all of the mapping data rendered in ASCII text and characters.
The “man” command is short for manual, and with it you can summon detailed manual page and information on nearly any other command or command line utility that is available, including using an extensive man document search to find related manual pages. While man pages are frequently used and referenced, many users don’t know how … Read More
Some more advanced Mac troubleshooting and diagnostics techniques require a user to access the Terminal from Mac OS Recovery Mode. We’ll show you how to quickly access the command line while a Mac is booted into Recovery Mode.
Command line users may find it helpful to change and rename the file extension of a group of files in a directory. For example, let’s say you have a batch of files with the file extension “.txt” but you want all of those the file extensions to be “.py” instead. That’s what we’re going to … Read More
Need to know what version of Gatekeeper and Xprotect are installed on a Mac? You can find this information through the command line of Mac OS. GateKeeper, MRT (Malware Removal Tool), and XProtect are all built-in features of Mac OS designed to prevent malware threats and other nefarious software from being installed or used on … Read More
Did you know the Mac has a native SSH client built directly into the command line? This ssh client allows for secured connections and remote logins into other machines. Unlike Windows, you won’t need a third party app to utilize SSH for connections into remote computers and devices, because ssh is built directly into Mac … Read More
Want to see the size of a directory from the command line? You may have noticed that using the traditional ls command to list the contents of a a directory won’t necessarily show the total size of a directory. Instead, to see what the disk usage is for a specific directory you’ll want to use … Read More
Mac OS users who have modified their DNS settings may need to clear their DNS cache before the changes take effect. Additionally, sometimes name servers and domains may not resolve as intended if you have stale DNS cache on the Mac, another situation where resetting DNS cache can often be the solution. We’ll show you … Read More
Some of the more privacy conscious Mac users out there might put tape over their webcam or use apps like Oversight to detect camera activity. While either of those approaches can be satisfactory for many users (or considered totally paranoid and overboard to others), many advanced Mac users in the security community go a step … Read More
Using Filevault on a Mac encrypts the entire hard drive and helps protect personal data from theft or unauthorized snooping. It’s a great security feature that many users enable when they’re first setting up their Mac, but some users may enable it or disable it later as well. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but … Read More
