To access the Unix command prompt in Mac OS X, open the Terminal application. It is located by default inside the Utilities folder, which in turn is inside the Applications folder.
Sep 02, 2018 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 having to. Mac OS X is built on a version of Unix called Darwin. To access the Unix command prompt in Mac OS X, open the Terminal application. It is located by default inside the Utilities folder, which in turn is inside the Applications folder. For information about Unix commands, see Introduction to Unix commands. Sep 29, 2013 This quick tutorial will show you people who are used to using Windows how to find the equivalent of the Command Prompt on Mac OS X. This will be useful when converting the Apple Mac Operating.
A.How do I open a terminal window?
Click the 'Start >> Program Files >> Accessories >> Command Prompt' to open a Command Prompt session using just your mouse. Click the 'Start' button and type 'cmd.' Right-click 'Cmd,' select 'Run as Administrator' and click 'Yes' to open Command Prompt with elevated privileges.
How do you open a folder in command prompt?
To do this, open a command prompt from the keyboard by typing Win+R, or click on StartRun then type cmd in the run box and click OK. Navigate to the folder you want displayed in Windows Explorer by using the Change Directory command 'cd' (with out the quotes).How do I do a System Restore on Windows 10?
- Open System Restore. Search for system restore in the Windows 10 Search box and select Create a restore point from the list of results.
- Enable System Restore.
- Restore your PC.
- Open Advanced start-up.
- Start System Restore in Safe Mode.
- Open Reset this PC.
- Reset Windows 10, but save your files.
- Reset this PC from Safe Mode.
How do I open a file in command prompt?
- Open Command Prompt.
- Type the name of the program you want to run. If its on the PATH System variable it will be executed. If not, you'll have to type the full path to the program. For example, to run D:Any_Folderany_program.exe type D:Any_Folderany_program.exe on the Command prompt and press Enter.
What is the terminal on my Mac?
Mac OS X comes stocked with an application named Terminal. The Terminal application is where you enter commands in the command line. It's located in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder on your hard drive — choose Applications→Utilities (from the keyboard, press Shift+Command+U).
What is the terminal on my Mac?
Mac OS X comes stocked with an application named Terminal. The Terminal application is where you enter commands in the command line. It's located in the Utilities folder within the Applications folder on your hard drive — choose Applications→Utilities (from the keyboard, press Shift+Command+U).What is bash in terminal?
The terminal originated in the predecessors of Mac OS X, called NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP. When you open terminal it automatically prompts you with a bash shell. Bash is a unix based shell created by a programmer named Brian Fox while he worked for the Free Software Foundation. Bash is an acronym for Bourne-again shell.How do I open up a terminal on Chromebook?
Save the file to your download folder and then open the Chromebook's terminal by pressing the Ctrl, ALT, and T keys together. Type 'shell' in the command line and hit the Enter key. Next, type 'sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t unity' and wait for Crouton to install.
What is the language used in terminal?
C++
Objective-C
What is the programming language for Mac?
Objective-C is the language most commonly used in Mac OS Programming. Objective-C entered Mac OS X and has ancestry in NeXT. Cocoa. Before you learn Mac programming you must know the basics of C since it is the basis for Objective-C.How do I open a terminal window?
Click the 'Start >> Program Files >> Accessories >> Command Prompt' to open a Command Prompt session using just your mouse. Click the 'Start' button and type 'cmd.' Right-click 'Cmd,' select 'Run as Administrator' and click 'Yes' to open Command Prompt with elevated privileges.What is bash for?
Bash is a Unix shell and command language written by Brian Fox for the GNU Project as a free software replacement for the Bourne shell.
How do I get to Terminal on Mac?
Before you can use it, you need to be able to find it. So what we need to do is open the terminal. On OS X, open your Applications folder, then open the Utilities folder. Open the Terminal application.
2.Where is the command line on a Mac?
The Mac command line is a program called Terminal. It lives in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder. To find it, go to your Applications folder. Near the bottom, there is a folder called Utilities.
3.What does command r do on Mac?
To enter Internet Recovery manually, restart or power on your Mac and hold down the Command (?) – Option (?) – R after hearing the startup chime. Release the keys after the animated globe appears on the screen. “Starting Internet Recovery,” reads a message. ”This may take a while.”
4.What is the ipconfig command for Mac?
Ipconfig Mac – Just like you you can open command prompt in Windows and hit “ipconfig” to get your local LAN/WLAN IP address, you have the same option on a Mac in OS X with the command “ifconfig”. Simply open up the terminal, eg. by pressing cmd+space and typing “terminal”.
5.How do I find my ipv4 Mac?
To find networking information on a Mac running OS X 10.4 (Tiger), navigate to the Network Preferences panel.
- Go to the Apple Menu, then select System Preferences.
- Click on 'Network' in the System Preferences panel.
- Under 'Show:', select the network interface that you want the IP/MAC address for.
How do I open Python on Mac?
Open the /Applications folder. Open the Utilities folder. Double-click Terminal to open a terminal window and get to a command line. Type python at the command prompt.
7.What is my default gateway Mac?
Wi-Fi: Click Advanced in the bottom right-hand corner of the window, and then select the TCP/IP tab. You'll find the default gateway address listed next to Router. Ethernet: You'll find your modem's default gateway address next to Router as shown below.
8.How do you open an app on a Mac?
To open your main Applications folder, choose Go > Applications from the menu bar. To open the Applications folder in your Home folder, choose Go > Home, then double-click Applications. Select the app that you want to delete from your Mac. Drag the app to the Trash, or choose File > Move to Trash.
9.How do you open a command prompt?
One of the quickest ways to launch the Command Prompt, in any modern version of Windows, is to use the Run window. A fast way to launch this window is to press the Win + R keys on your keyboard. Then, type cmd or cmd.exe and press Enter or click/tap OK.
10.What does command do on Mac?
Undo the previous command. You can then press Command-Shift-Z to Redo, reversing the undo command. In some apps, you can undo and redo multiple commands. Find items in a document or open a Find window.
11.How do you find your ipv4 address on a Mac?
You can find any Macs IP, or your IP address from the Mac System Preferences Network configuration screen:
- From the Apple menu pull down “System Preferences”
- Click on the “Network” preference pane.
- Your IP address will be visible to the right, as indicated in the screenshot below.
Where is the Command key on a Mac?
On a keyboard made with the Microsoft Windows logo, the Windows keys are identical in function to the Mac Command keys, as is the. Meta key on a Sun or another Unix-oriented keyboard. Conversely, when an Apple USB keyboard is used with other operating systems, the Command keys function as Windows keys or Meta keys.
13.How do you ping on a Mac?
- Open Network Utility (located inside Applications > Utilities).
- Click Ping.
- Fill out the “Enter the network that you want to ping” field. You can enter the IP address or web URL. Enter www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer to test the ping with that website, for example.
- Click Ping.
How do you start Task Manager on a Mac?
The simplest way to get to Activity Monitor in Mac OS X is to use Spotlight as a keyboard shortcut for quick access:
- Hit Command+Spacebar to bring up the Spotlight search field.
- Type in “Activity Monitor”
- Hit the Return key when “Activity Monitor” populates in the spotlight results.
How do I find my Mac system information?
- Click the Apple icon in the top left, and select About This Mac.
- For more advanced details click More Info in the About This Macwindow.
- System information will be displayed as shown:
What does command line do?
A command-line interface or command language interpreter (CLI), also known as command-line user interface, console user interface and character user interface (CUI), is a means of interacting with a computer program where the user (or client) issues commands to the program in the form of successive lines of text (
17.How do I find my DNS server Mac?
- Open System Preferences, either from the Dock or the Apple menu > System Preferences.
- When the System Preferences window appears, click on the Network icon.
- In the left-hand pane, choose the network connection you want to check.
- Select the Advanced button and the DNS tab.
How do I open up a terminal on Chromebook?
Save the file to your download folder and then open the Chromebook's terminal by pressing the Ctrl, ALT, and T keys together. Type 'shell' in the command line and hit the Enter key. Next, type 'sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t unity' and wait for Crouton to install.
19.How do I connect a Mac to a network?
Connect to a computer or server by entering its address
Mac Os X Command Line
- In the Finder, choose Go > Connect to Server.
- Type the network address for the computer or server in the Server Address field.
- Click Connect.
- Select how you want to connect to the Mac:
How do you stop ping in Mac terminal?
- Launch the Terminal, found in the Utilities folder of Applications.
- Type the following command:
- This will ping to yahoo.com repeatedly until you stop the ping command from running by hitting Control+C.
Updated: 28th November 2019
Historically, the command line interface provided a way to manipulate a computer over simple, text-based connections. In the modern era, in spite of the ability to transmit graphical user interfaces over the Internet, the command line remains a powerful tool for performing certain types of tasks.
As described previously in Before You Begin, most users interact with a command-line environment using the Terminal application, though you may also use a remote connection method such as secure shell (SSH). Each Terminal window or SSH connection provides access to the input and output of a shell process. A shell is a special command-line tool that is designed specifically to provide text-based interactive control over other command-line tools.
In addition to running individual tools, most shells provide some means of combining multiple tools into structured programs, called shell scripts (the subject of this book).
Different shells feature slightly different capabilities and scripting syntax. Although you can use any shell of your choice, the examples in this book assume that you are using the standard OS X shell. The standard shell is
bash
if you are running OS X v10.3 or later and tcsh
if you are running an earlier version of the operating system.The following sections provide some basic information and tips about using the command-line interface more effectively; they are not intended as an exhaustive reference for using the shell environments.
Note: This appendix was originally part of Mac Technology Overview.
Basic Shell Concepts
Before you start working in any shell environment, there are some basic features of shell scripting that you should understand. Some of these features are specific to OS X, but most are common to all platforms that support shell scripting.
Running Your First Command-Line Tool
In general, you run command-line tools that OS X provides by typing the name of the tool. (The syntax for running tools that you’ve added is described later in this appendix.)
For example, if you run the
ls
command, by default, it lists the files in your home directory. To run this command, type ls
and press Return.Most tools also can take a number of flags (sometimes called switches). For example, you can get a “long” file listing (with additional information about every file) by typing
ls -l
and pressing Return. The -l
flag tells the ls
command to change its default behavior.Similarly, most tools take arguments. For example, to show a long listing of the files on your OS X desktop, type
ls -l Desktop
and press Return. In that command, the word Desktop
is an argument that is the name of the folder that contains the contents of your OS X desktop.In addition, some tools have flags that take flag-specific arguments in addition to the main arguments to the tool as a whole.
Specifying Files and Directories
Most commands in the shell operate on files and directories, the locations of which are identified by paths. The directory names that make up a path are separated by forward-slash characters. For example, the Terminal program is in the
Utilities
folder within the Applications
folder at the top level of your hard drive. Its path is /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
.The shell (along with, for that matter, all other UNIX applications and tools) also has a notion of a current working directory. When you specify a filename or path that does not start with a slash, that path is assumed to be relative to this directory. For example, if you type
cat foo
, the cat
command prints the contents of the file foo
in the current directory. You can change the current directory using the cd
command.Finally, the shell supports a number of directory names that have a special meaning.
Table A-1 lists some of the standard shortcuts used to represent specific directories in the system. Because they are based on context, these shortcuts eliminate the need to type full paths in many situations.
Path string | Description |
---|---|
. | The . directory (single period) is a special directory that, when accessed, points to the current working directory. This value is often used as a shortcut to eliminate the need to type in a full path when running a command.For example, if you type ./mytool and press return, you are running the mytool command in the current directory (if such a tool exists). |
. | The . directory (two periods) is a special directory that, when accessed, points to the directory that contains the current directory (called its parent directory). This directory is used for navigating up one level towards the top of the directory hierarchy.For example, the path ./Test is a file or directory (named Test ) that is a sibling of the current directory.Note: Depending on the shell, if you follow a symbolic link into a subdirectory, typing cd . directory will either take you back to the directory you came from or will take you to the parent of the current directory. |
~ or $HOME | At the beginning of a path, the tilde character represents the home directory of the specified user, or the currently logged in user if no user is specified. (Unlike . and . , this is not an actual directory, but a substitution performed by the shell.)For example, you can refer to the current user’s Documents folder as ~/Documents . Similarly, if you have another user whose short name is frankiej , you could access that user’s Documents folder as ~frankiej/Documents (if that user has set permissions on their Documents directory to allow you to see its contents).The $HOME environment variable can also be used to represent the current user’s home directory.In OS X, the user’s home directory usually resides in the /Users directory or on a network server. |
File and directory names traditionally include only letters, numbers, hyphens, the underscore character (
_
), and often a period (.
) followed by a file extension that indicates the type of file (.txt
, for example). Most other characters, including space characters, should be avoided because they have special meaning to the shell.Although some OS X file systems permit the use of these other characters, including spaces, you must do one of the following:
- “Escape” the character—put a backslash character (
) immediately before the character in the path.
- Add single or double quotation marks around the path or the portion that contains the offending characters.
For example, the path name
My Disk
can be written as 'My Disk'
, 'My Disk'
, or My Disk
.Single quotes are safer than double quotes because the shell does not do any interpretation of the contents of a single-quoted string. However, double quotes are less likely to appear in a filename, making them slightly easier to use. When in doubt, use a backslash before the character in question, or two backslashes to represent a literal backslash.
For more detailed information, see Quoting Special Characters in Flow Control, Expansion, and Parsing.
Accessing Files on Additional Volumes
On a typical UNIX system, the storage provided by local disk drives is presented as a single tree of files descending from a single root directory. This differs from the way the Finder presents local disk drives, which is as one or more volumes, with each volume acting as the root of its own directory hierarchy. To satisfy both worlds, OS X includes a hidden directory,
Volumes
, at the root of the local file system. This directory contains all of the volumes attached to the local computer.To access the contents of other local (and many network) volumes, you prefix the volume-relative path with
/Volumes/
followed by the volume name. For example, to access the Applications
directory on a volume named MacOSX
, you would use the path /Volumes/MacOSX/Applications
.Note: To access files on the boot volume, you are not required to add volume information, since the root directory of the boot volume is
/
. Including the volume information still works, though, so if you are interacting with the shell from an application that is volume-aware, you may want to add it, if only to be consistent with the way you access other volumes. You must include the volume information for all volumes other than the boot volume.Input And Output
Most tools take text input from the user and print text out to the user’s screen. They do so using three standard file descriptors, which are created by the shell and are inherited by the program automatically. These standard file descriptors are listed in Table A-2.
File descriptor | Description |
---|---|
stdin | The standard input file descriptor is the means through which a program obtains input from the user or other tools. By default, this descriptor provides the user’s keystrokes. You can also redirect the output from files or other commands to stdin , allowing you to control one tool with another tool. |
stdout | The standard output file descriptor is where most tools send their output data. By default, standard output sends data back to the user. You can also redirect this output to the input of other tools. |
stderr | The standard error file descriptor is where the program sends error messages, debug messages, and any other information that should not be considered part of the program’s actual output data. By default, errors are displayed on the command line like standard output. The purpose for having a separate error descriptor is so that the user can redirect the actual output data from the tool to another tool without that data getting corrupted by non-fatal errors and warnings. |
To learn more about working with these descriptors, including redirecting the output of one tool to the input of another, read Shell Input and Output.
Terminating Programs
To terminate the currently running program from the command line, press Control-C. This keyboard shortcut sends an abort (
ABRT
) signal to the currently running process. In most cases this causes the process to terminate, although some tools may install signal handlers to trap this signal and respond differently. (See Trapping Signals in Advanced Techniques for details.)In addition, you can terminate most scripts and command-line tools by closing a Terminal window or SSH connection. This sends a hangup (
HUP
) signal to the shell, which it then passes on to the currently running program. If you want a program to continue running after you log out, you should run it using the nohup
command, which catches that signal and does not pass it on to whatever command it invokes.Frequently Used Commands
Shell scripting involves a mixture of built-in shell commands and standard programs that run in all shells. Although most shells offer the same basic set of commands, there are often variations in the syntax and behavior of those commands. In addition to the shell commands, OS X also provides a set of standard programs that run in all shells.
Table A-3 lists some commands that are commonly used interactively in the shell. Most of the items in this table are not specific to any given shell. For syntax and usage information for each command, see the corresponding man page. For a more in-depth list of commands and their accompanying documentation, see OS X Man Pages.
Command | Meaning | Description |
---|---|---|
cat | (con)catenate | Prints the contents of the specified files to stdout . |
cd | change directory | Changes the current working directory to the specified path. |
cp | copy | Copies files (and directories, when using the -r option) from one location to another. |
date | date | Displays the current date and time using the standard format. You can display this information in other formats by invoking the command with specific flags. |
echo | echo to output | Writes its arguments to stdout . This command is most often used in shell scripts to print status information to the user. |
less and more | pager commands Xnview alternative for os x. | Used to scroll through the contents of a file or the results of another shell command. This command allows forward and backward navigation through the text. The more command got its name from the prompt “Press a key to show more..” commonly used at the end of a screenful of information. The less command gets its name from the idiom “less is more”. |
ls | List | Displays the contents of the specified directory (or the current directory if no path is specified). Pass the -a flag to list all directory contents (including hidden files and directories).Pass the -l flag to display detailed information for each entry. Pass -@ with -l to show extended attributes. |
mkdir | Make Directory | Creates a new directory. |
mv | Move | Moves files and directories from one place to another. You also use this command to rename files and directories. |
open | Open an application or file. | You can use this command to launch applications from Terminal and optionally open files in that application. |
pwd | Print Working Directory | Displays the full path of the current directory. |
rm | Remove | Deletes the specified file or files. You can use pattern matching characters (such as the asterisk) to match more than one file. You can also remove directories with this command, although use of rmdir is preferred. |
rmdir | Remove Directory | Deletes a directory. The directory must be empty before you delete it. |
Ctrl-C | Abort | Sends an abort signal to the current command. In most cases this causes the command to terminate, although commands may install signal handlers to trap this command and respond differently. |
Ctrl-Z | Suspend | Sends the SIGTSTP signal to the current command. In most cases this causes the command to be suspended, although commands may install signal handlers to trap this command and respond differently. Once suspended, you can use the fg builtin to bring the process back to the foreground or the bg builtin to continue running it in the background. |
Ctrl- | Quit The latest version of iTunes now comes installed with macOS Mojave. Upgrade today to get your favorite music, movies, and podcasts. ITunes is also where you can join Apple Music and stream — or download and play offline — over 50 million songs, ad‑free. Apr 24, 2020 Download macOS Mojave. For the strongest security and latest features, find out whether you can upgrade to macOS Catalina, the latest version of the Mac operating system. If you still need macOS Mojave, use this App Store link: Get macOS Mojave. Begin installation. Dec 03, 2019 I have not possibility to download Mac Os Mojave on other pc. Mac is inizialized and it's wait for downloading Mojave SO. I ask for your help. In an attempt to update the S O I was forced to initialize the Mac and give it from the Utility menu, the Reinstall. Download itunes for mac os mojave download. | Sends the SIGQUIT signal to the current command. In most cases this causes the command to terminate, although commands may install signal handlers to trap this command and respond differently. |
Open Command Prompt Mac
Environment Variables
Some programs require the use of environment variables for their execution. Environment variables are variables inherited by all programs executed in the shell’s context. The shell itself uses environment variables to store information such as the name of the current user, the name of the host computer, and the paths to any executable programs. You can also create environment variables and use them to control the behavior of your program without modifying the program itself. For example, you might use an environment variable to tell your program to print debug information to the console.
To set the value of an environment variable, you use the appropriate shell command to associate a variable name with a value. For example, to set the environment variable
MYFUNCTION
to the value MyGetData
in the global shell environment you would type the following command in a Terminal window:When you launch an application from a shell, the application inherits much of its parent shell’s environment, including any exported environment variables. This form of inheritance can be a useful way to configure the application dynamically. For example, your application can check for the presence (or value) of an environment variable and change its behavior accordingly. Different shells support different semantics for exporting environment variables, so see the man page for your preferred shell for further information.
Child processes of a shell inherit a copy of the environment of that shell. Shells do not share their environments with one another. Thus, variables you set in one Terminal window are not set in other Terminal windows. Once you close a Terminal window, any variables you set in that window are gone.
If you want the value of a variable to persist between sessions and in all Terminal windows, you must either add it to a login script or add it to your environment property list. See Before You Begin for details.
Similarly, environment variables set by tools or subshells are lost when those tools or subshells exit.
Running User-Added Commands
As mentioned previously, you can run most tools by typing their name. This is because those tools are located in specific directories that the shell searches when you type the name of a command. The shell uses the
PATH
environment variable to control where it searches for these tools. It contains a colon-delimited list of paths to search--/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
, for example.If a tool is in any other directory, you must provide a path for the program to tell it where to find that tool. (For security reasons, when writing scripts, you should always specify a complete, absolute path.)
For security reasons, the current working directory is not part of the default search path (
PATH
), and should not be added to it. If it were, then another user on a multi-user system could trick you into running a command by adding a malicious tool with the same name as one you would typically run (such as the ls
command) or a common misspelling thereof.For this reason, if you need to run a tool in the current working directory, you must explicitly specify its path, either as an absolute path (starting from
/
) or as a relative path starting with a directory name (which can be the .
directory). For example, to run the MyCommandLineProgram
tool in the current directory, you could type ./MyCommandLineProgram
and press Return. Safari 6 for os x lion.With the aforementioned security caveats in mind, you can add new parts (temporarily) to the value of the
PATH
environment variable by doing the following:If you want the additional path components to persist between sessions and in all Terminal windows, you must either add it to a login script or add it to your environment property list. See Before You Begin for details.
Running Applications
To launch an application, you can generally either:
- Use the
open
command. - Run the application binary itself.Type the pathname of the executable file inside the package.
Note: As a general rule, if you launch a GUI application from a script, you should run that script only within Terminal or another GUI application. You cannot necessarily launch an GUI application when logged in remotely (using SSH, for example). In general, doing so is possible only if you are also logged in using the OS X GUI, and in some versions of OS X, it is disallowed entirely.
Learning About Other Commands
At the command-line level, most documentation comes in the form of man pages (short for manual). Man pages provide reference information for many shell commands, programs, and POSIX-level concepts. The manual page
manpages
describes the organization of manual, and the format and syntax of individual man pages.To access a man page, type the
man
command followed by the name of the thing you want to look up. For example, to look up information about the bash
shell, you would type man bash
. The man pages are also included in the OS X Developer Library (OS X Man Pages).You can also search the manual pages by keyword using the
apropos
command.Note: Not all commands and programs have man pages. For a list of available man pages, look in the
/usr/share/man
directory or see OS X Man Pages in the OS X Developer Library.Most shells have a command or man page that displays the list of commands that are built into the shell (builtins). Table A-4 lists the available shells in OS X along with the ways you can access the list of builtins for the shell.
Shell | Command |
---|---|
bash | help or bash -c help |
sh | man sh |
csh | builtins |
tcsh | builtins |
zsh | man zshbuiltins |
Copyright © 2003, 2014 Apple Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Updated: 2014-03-10