Mac Terminal Commands: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on May 5, 2024 in Computers

Usage

Note: Hold option (alt) and click a position in the current line to move your cursor to that position.

Clear history: ctrl + l

Clear everything left from current cursor position: ctrl + u

Clear everything right from current cursor position: ctrl + k

Re-call last input with sudo: sudo !!

Stop current process: ctrl + c

Jump to left: ctrl + a

Jump to right: ctrl + e

Help: help cd / help dir (…)

Finding Help: apropos directory / apropos search (…)

Define custom startup screen: sudo nano /etc/motd

Run a script as background process: python script.Py &

List all running process’s: ps aux

Kill a running process: sudo kill 12345

System

Get the current path: pwd

Copy to clipboard: pwd | pbcopy

Paste: pbpaste

Get the current hostname: hostname

Get the current users: users

Get all info about the environment: env

Show calendar: cal

Show today’s date: date

Exit terminal: exit

Permissions

Use -R option to change permissions recursively.

List: ps -ef | grep apache | grep -v grep

Change permissions: chmod 755 index.Php

Change owner: chown root index.Php (root is the username)

Change group: chgrp www-data index.Php (www-data is the groupname)

WordPress Files/Folder Permissions

Let apache be owner: chown www-data:www-data -R *

Change directory permissions rwxr-xr-x: find . -type d -exec chmod 755 {} \;

Change file permissions rw-r–r–: find . -type f -exec chmod 644 {} \;

(see http://stackoverflow.Com/a/18352747/1815847)

Directories

List directory contents: ls

List all directory contents: ll

List all directory contents sorted by time edited: ls -alt

List directory (wildcard matching): ls *.Txt

List all files of type: find . -name "*.Txt" -print

Go back to previous directory: cd -

Make (empty) directory: mkdir sample-dirname

Remove (empty) directory: rmdir sample-dirname

Remove directory with all contents: rm -rf sample-dirname/

Remove directory contents and keep directory: rm -rf *

Checkout directory: cd sample-dirname

Browsing directories: pushd sample-dirname / popd / dirs (see http://unix.Stackexchange.Com/a/77081)

Symlinks

Create symlink: ln -s source-dirname destination-dirname

Update symlink: ln -sfn source-dirname destination-dirname

Remove symlink: unlink sample-dirname

• -s: Create a symbolic link.
• -f: If the target file already exists, then unlink it.
• -F: If the target file already exists and is a directory, then remove/overwrite it.
• -h: If the target file or directory is a symbolic link, do not follow it.
• -n: Same as -h, for compatibility with other ln implementations.

Files

Make (empty) file: touch sample-filename.Txt

Change creation date: touch –t 201401011337 sample-filename.Txt

Change modified date: touch –mt 201401011337 sample-filename.Txt

Duplicate file: cp sample-filename.Txt sample-filename-copy.Txt

Copy/Page folder with content: cp -a folder/ new_folder

Move/Rename file: mv current-filename.Txt new-filename.Txt

Move/Rename file and prompt before overwriting an existing file: mv -i current-filename.Txt new-filename.Txt

Remove file: rm sample-filename.Txt

View file: less sample-filename.Txt / more sample-filename.Txt

Write to file (will overwrite existing content): cat > sample-filename.Txt (quit with ctrl+d)

Search for a filename (not content!) in the current directory: find sample-filename.Txt

Search for a string (not filename!) inside all files in the current directory: ack "string" --php (documentation)

Search for a string inside all files in the current directory and subdrectories: grep -r "string" *

Search and replace within file: sed -i '' 's/original-text/new-text/g' sample-filename.Txt

MD5 hash for files: md5 sample-filename.Txt

MD5 hash for folders: tar c folder | md5sum

Encrypt file: openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -e -in sample-filename.Txt -out sample-encrypted.Txt

Decrypt file: openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -in sample-encrypted.Txt -out sample-filename.Txt

Server

Access via ssh: ssh pi@192.168.0.0

Copy file from server to local: scp pi@192.168.0.0:/path/to/file.Png ~/Desktop/ (use -r to recursively get complete folder)

Copy file from local to server: scp ~/Desktop/file.Png pi@192.168.0.0:/path/to/folder (use -r to recursively get complete folder)

Copy file from local to server: rsync --exclude=".DS_Store" -vzcrSLh ~/Desktop/file.Png pi@192.168.0.0:/path/to/folder

Escape files with spaces in name like this: /path/to/file\\\ name.Png

System

Show disc space: df -h

Show disc space (inodes): df -i

Show disc space for current directory: du -hs

Current processes (also CPS usage): top or htop

Show running php processes: ps aux | grep php

Monitor error log (stream as file grows): tail error.Log -f -n 0

Apps

Start appliction: open -a [name-of-programm] e.G. open -a firefox

Open finder with current folder: open .

Variables

Register variable:
export TESTING="Sample Text"

Echo variable: echo $TESTING

Unset variable: unset TESTING

Output & Redirects

Write to file: echo "Hello" > hello.Txt

Append content from a file to another file: cat file1.Txt >> file2.Txt

Add the amount of lines, words, and characters to file2.Txt: cat file1.Txt | wc | cat > file2.Txt

Sort the content of a file (like cat): sort hello.Txt

Save to sorted content to a new file: cat file1.Txt | sort > sorted-file1.Txt

Sort and remove duplicates and save to a new file: sort file1.Txt | uniq > uniq-file1.Txt

Functions

Calculate (returns only int): echo $((123/2))

HTTP

Check site feedback: ping google.Com

Show site IP: dig +short google.Com

Show A Record: dig a google.Com (Returns: google.Com. 43 IN A 123.123.123.123 aka public-name ttl internet record-type server-address)

Webservice: https://www.Whatsmydns.Net/

Curl headers: curl -I https://hofmannsven.Com

Tools

Tree

Installation: brew install tree

HTTPie

Installation: brew install httpie

Usage:

http GET https://hofmannsven.Test --verify=no