The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because youâre used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks â itâs usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, youâll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once youâve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Macâs command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
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ITerm2, Terminal.app, and ZOC are probably your best bets out of the 12 options considered. 'Extremely customizable' is the primary reason people pick iTerm2 over the competition. This page is powered by a knowledgeable community that helps you make an informed decision. Apple's Terminal app on the Mac is a great tool for diving into the command line, but it isn't the only option available. The Mac Observer rounded up several alternatives to Terminal you can use.
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How to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. https://cxofwwd.weebly.com/finance-app-android-mac.html. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
Youâll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you donât like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
If Terminal feels complicated or you have issues with the set-up, let us tell you right away that there are alternatives. MacPilot allows to get access to over 1,200 macOS features without memorizing any commands. Basically, a third-party Terminal for Mac that acts like Finder.
For Mac monitoring features, try iStat Menus. The app collects data like CPU load, disk activity, network usage, and more â all of which accessible from your menu bar.
Mac Terminal ProgramBasic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, itâs worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, youâd use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Letâs try it.
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder â ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when youâre typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when youâre copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You canât use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command thatâs already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you donât specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Hereâs another example. This time, weâll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, youâd keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
mv ~/Documents/TerminalTest TerminalTestFile.rtf ~/Documents/TerminalTest2 TerminalTestFile.rtf
More advanced Terminal commands
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that arenât accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
Download files from the internetTerminal For Mac![]()
Youâll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you donât want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
Change the default file type for screenshots
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. https://cxofwwd.weebly.com/blog/mailbox-app-mac-update. To change that to .jpg, do this:
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' youâd use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesnât mean you should. Itâs a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up spaceApple Terminal App
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, itâs far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space youâll save. And once youâve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like itâs difficult to use, it really isnât. The key is learning a few commands, such as those weâve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, itâs a powerful tool that has deep access to your Macâs system files. Check commands by googling them if youâre not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. Itâs much safer!
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(Redirected from Terminal.app)
Terminal (Terminal.app) is the terminal emulator included in the macOSoperating system by Apple.[1] Terminal originated in NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, the predecessor operating systems of macOS.[2]
As a terminal emulator, the application provides text-based access to the operating system, in contrast to the mostly graphical nature of the user experience of macOS, by providing a command-line interface to the operating system when used in conjunction with a Unix shell, such as zsh (the default shell in macOS Catalina[3]).[4] The user can choose other shells available with macOS, such as the KornShell, tcsh, and bash.[4][5]
The preferences dialog for Terminal.app in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and later offers choices for values of the TERM environment variable. Available options are ansi, dtterm, nsterm, rxvt, vt52, vt100, vt102, xterm, xterm-16color and xterm-256color, which differ from the OS X 10.5 (Leopard) choices by dropping the xterm-color and adding xterm-16color and xterm-256color. These settings do not alter the operation of Terminal, and the xterm settings do not match the behavior of xterm.[6]
Terminal includes several features that specifically access macOS APIs and features. These include the ability to use the standard macOS Help search function to find manual pages and integration with Spotlight.[citation needed] Terminal was used by Apple as a showcase for macOS graphics APIs in early advertising of Mac OS X,[citation needed] offering a range of custom font and coloring options, including transparent backgrounds.
Using Terminal On MacSee also[edit]
References[edit]Terminal For Mac Os
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