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In addition to a great graphical user interface, macOS offers a very capable command line environment via the Terminal program. However, there are over 1,400 possible commands you can use with the Mac Terminal application. How can you find out what they are, and what they do?
How to View All of the Possible Terminal Commands in macOS
While we refer to the Mac operating system as “macOS,” the Mac Terminal and all of its commands are available on all recent versions of the Mac operating system, as long as you’re using the default bash prompt. Here’s how to list the commands.
Using Launchpad: Open Launchpad. It’s the silver icon in the Dock that looks like a rocket. Terminal 101: Using the Find Command By MacLife 02 April 2012 Every Monday, we'll show you how to do something new and simple with Apple's built-in command line application.
- Open the Terminal app. It can be found in /Applications/Utilities/ or you can just bring up Spotlight Search and type “Terminal” and press ENTER.
- At the bash prompt, hit the Escape key twice. (Upper left-hand corner of your Mac’s keyboard.)
- You’ll see a message that says “Display all 1468 possibilities? (y or n)” hit the “y” key to start displaying every command.
- The listing will stop each time it fills up the Terminal screen. Hold the Return key to scroll line-by-line through the list. Press the space bar to page down an entire screen. (If needed, you can scroll back up with your mouse pointer to view commands that have scrolled off the screen.)
- When you’ve finished viewing the list, hit the “Delete” or Backspace key to close the list and return to a bash prompt.
Get Information About a Terminal Command
That was an amazing amount of commands, right? But what do they do?
- Right-click on any command listed in the Terminal window.
- Choose “Open man page”
- The manual page for the command will open in a new terminal window to explain the command. as seen below.
(Original Tip: OSXDaily)
Terminal User Guide
You can use the command-line environment interactively by typing a command and waiting for a result, or you can use the shell to compose scripts that run without direct interaction.
Command Lines For Mac Terminal Connector
Execute commands in the shell
- In the Terminal app on your Mac, enter the complete pathname of the tool’s executable file, followed by any needed arguments, then press Return.
If a command is located in one of the shell’s known folders, you can omit path information when entering the command name. The list of known folders is stored in the shell’s PATH environment variable and includes the folders containing most command-line tools.
For example, to run the
ls
command in the current user’s home folder, enter the following at the command prompt, then press Return:Svn Command Line Mac Terminal
To run a command in the current user’s home folder, precede it with the folder specifier. For example, to run
MyCommandLineProg
, use the following:% ~/MyCommandLineProg
To open an app, use the open command:
When entering commands, if you get the message
command not found
, check your spelling. Here’s an example:% opne -a TextEdit.app
zsh: opne: command not found
Terminate commands
- In the Terminal app on your Mac, click the Terminal window that is running the command you want to terminate.
- Press Control-C.This sends a signal that causes most commands to terminate.
Repeat previously entered commands
The commands you enter during a session are saved so you can repeat a previously used command without retyping it.
Exit Command Line Mac Terminal
- In the Terminal app on your Mac, press the Up Arrow key.The last command you entered appears on the command line.
- Continue pressing the Up Arrow key until you see the command you want, then press Return.
See alsoSpecify files and folders in Terminal on MacRedirect Terminal input and output on MacDrag files into a Terminal window to specify paths on MacKeyboard shortcuts in Terminal on MacApple Developer website: Command Line Primer