Mac OS Terminal Commands
tell Mac to say "Hello Simon"
say Hello Simon
to see how much space is left on hard drive
df -h
find your Wifi password
security find-generic-password -wa "My Wifi Network"
to print and copy the password to the clipboard
security find-generic-password -wa "My Wifi Network" | pbcopy
Paste and Match Style - content is pasted without its original formatting. Instead, the content adopts the formatting of the new document you are pasting it into
command + option + shift + v
to keep Mac running and not go to sleep
caffeinate
Screenshot that goes straight to your clipboard
cmd + ctrl + shift + 4
change default name of screenshot filenames:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture name mycaptures
change screencapture file types
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg (or png)
change screenshot location
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop/screenshots
see a history of everything you’ve downloaded:
sqlite3 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV* 'select LSQuarantineDataURLString from LSQuarantineEvent'
delete your entire history of downloads
sqlite3 ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.QuarantineEventsV* 'delete from LSQuarantineEvent'
to change your password
passwd then security set-keychain-password
see current user
whoami
display information about all active network interfaces
ifconfig
use grep to filter for "example"
ifconfig en0 | grep example
When visiting a website, see all the routers you hit
traceroute simonpost.com
DNS info for a website
dig simonpost.com
to see processes
ps -ax
which processes are using the most CPU
top
which processes are using the most memory
top -o rsize
find id of process called "slowguy", then kill it:
ps -ax | grep slowguy
kill -9 6789
show which SHELL you are currently using
which $SHELL
switch SHELL to ZSH
zsh
switch to Bash
bash
how long has your Mac been up?
uptime
Flush your DNS cache
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; sudo killall mDNSResponderHelper; sudo dscacheutil -flushcache
Quick preview a file
qlmanage -p filename
Compare 2 files
diff file1 file2
download a file or hit endpoint
curl wttr.in/paris
Set alarm clock:
leave 1132
see history of your commands:
history
disable gatekeeper:
sudo spctl —master-disable
re-enable it immediately after installing a potentially dangerous appat by running the command sudo spctl --master-enable
start a python3 web server
python3 -m http.server
restart computer
shutdown -r now
shutdown computer
shutdown -h now
see OS version
sw_vers
see details about your system
system_profiler
monitor network connections
nettop
see list of disks mounted on your Mac
diskutil list
see disk usage
du -sh
copy a file
ditto (same as copying a file with cp)
to ping a website
ping google.com