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The Terminal of your Mac is both scary and powerful at the same time. It is equivalent to having a whole computer world residing underneath your macOS interface. The Terminal works well in providing a line interface for you to control the macOS interface parts.
Yes, it swears to give you the accessibility of UNIX features- the ones that you have been longing for. Mac terminals can sometimes be convoluting while being laser-focused, the other times, offering a real-time solution for getting things done.
All you’ve to do is type a text line instead of paving your path through many screens by clicking and dragging. Although people find Mac Terminal a pretty intimidating process. Yet, tech giants believe that this becomes a much easier process once a user gets to know about some super-useful tricks.
But, before knowing these super-cool tips, enlightening yourself about the trending word Mac Terminal is pivotal. Let’s get going!
Discover Mac Terminal
Mac Terminal is a few of the most misunderstood Mac Utilities. Yet, knowing about it should be the first thing on your to-do list. The foremost that you must know is that Terminal is a Mac application, and it sits in the Applications Utility folder.
This app helps in gaining root-level access to your system. You can compare it to your Mac’s employee entrance. Terminal works well in letting you get to the backstage for making changes to the things as you deem fit. You can call it the Command-Line.
Note that the incoming power comes with a warning, and the Terminal is both fussy and literal at the same time. It won’t be of any help unless the user types the right kind of commands. Also, it can be a daunting process because you cannot reverse the changes, and one keystroke can turn the tables down.
Tech giants exclaim knowing about Terminal is vital because you can do some things only by making use of Terminal. Thus, one should have a hold over the basics! Enlightening yourself about some aspects like how to open Terminal on Mac, what are Terminal alternatives for Mac, and the know-how of controlling your Mac with ease is essential.
Yet, if you’re struggling with how to open a Terminal, visiting the learning resource https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-open-terminal-on-mac should be on your list, the experts exclaim. They also suggest launching it like any other Application. Like you read that the Terminal is unforgiving.
Although there is no need to fear it yet being careful about using the right code during the instruction entering process for your Mac is vital. Also, drive particular attention to the word sudo for any command. Can’t wait to know more of such tips and tricks? Stick onto us while we unveil many others:
Flush Mac memory:
Always restart the computer whenever you see the Mac becoming unresponsive. If you do so, it will help you to free up the system memory and run the system better. The pitfall is that you’ll have to switch some apps off and save the current projects on which you’ve been working.
Open the Terminal and type:
sudo purge
You’ll see a better Mac performance once you type the asked password. This command has a similar effect to that of restarting your Mac.
Keep your Mac awake:
It takes a command to override the sleep settings. All you’ve to do is
caffeinate
Type Ctrl-C for ending the command or taking notice of the time limit.
caffeinate -u- t (for the number of seconds)
Check macOS updates more often:
Type:
defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate ScheduleFrequency -int 1
To reset the frequency of macOS updates. You can change this from weekly to daily or vice-versa.
File downloads without browser:
You might be aware of the circumstances wherein you have the URL of a file and don’t want to download it in your web browser. Yes, when Safari, Firefox, and Chrome do not meet your requirements, a Terminal will. A user will need two commands. One command will set the location of the Terminal to the Downloads folder, and the other will help in downloading the file. Type
Cd ~/Downloads/ for setting the location of the downloads.
You can also change Downloads to an all-together different folder if needed. Yet, you may need typing the full path if it isn’t the first time of the user directory. On the Terminal window, drop the folder. Type
Curl -O [the file’s URL] for downloading the file.
macOS works well in creating some hidden files and folders- owing to many reasons. Users never want to know the reasons for the existence of the hidden file, yet somewhere down the line, they might need to track them down. The good news is that you can do this employing the following Terminal Type:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE
killall Finder
Hide the files again by changing the word TRUE to FALSE.
Enable the selection of text in a quick look:
A pro tool for the quick examination of the file contents is Quick Look. Although the real intention of developing the tool was images, yet it also works well in reading the text of the documents. It comes with many constraints like the restriction of text copying. The good news is you can use the Terminal command for selecting the text. Type
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE; killall Finder
View the contents of a file:
You might have come across a situation wherein you receive a file, but proper app availability restricts opening the same. The chances are that the file you receive might be corrupt. Thus, a Terminal command by your side will help in viewing its contents. Type:
cat [file path] for viewing the contents of a file.
Take Note: You can also drag the file to the Terminal window and drop the same after using the command. It saves you from typing the file path.
These are some of the many Terminal commands. We hope that these could give you a taste of how to use Mac utility commands. Also, don’t fear using these Terminal commands as long as you take out some time for learning and gaining insights into what you’re doing! Loads of luck to your way if you’re entering the world of Terminal commands for the first time.
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