The Most Useful Terminal Commands in OS X

The Most Useful Terminal Commands in OS X

, , , , ,
Terminal is an OS X built in app which can doing any basic tasks. It allows you to copy, move, rename, open or convert files just by type in its window. Terminal also can tweak several setting includes system animation, adding advance tool in some apps, repair permission and many more. And I will show you the most useful terminal commands in OS X for me.

1. Hide file and Show Hidden files in Finder

 This is basic task but I often use it at work. When you want to hide a file from your Finder, just type:

   chflags hidden input

Then press Enter or Return. See the picture below! In this case, I am hiding a movie file in Desktop named Untitled.m4v. You can just drag the file into Terminal window after you type "chflags hidden". If you wanna show it back, just change "hidden" to "nohidden".

Now, how to show the hidden files? Type this command below:

   defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

 Press Enter to confirm then relaunch Finder by typing:

   killall Finder

See the attachment below!
If you want to revert it, just change "YES" to "No".

2. QuickTime Autoplay

By default, when we open movie file by double click from Finder, the QuickTime will shows up but it doesn't play automatically. It can be changed by type:

   defaults write com.apple.QuicktimePlayerX MGPlayMovieOnOpen 1

If you want it back to default, only change the number "1" to "0".
3. Clear Cache

Sometimes your machine going slow, because it has too much cache files. By doing the next task from your Terminal, you'll enjoy a faster mac as doing clean install. Follow this trick below:

   sudo chown root:admin /
   sudo kextcache -system-prelinked-kernel
   sudo kextcache -system-caches
   restart

By typing the commands above you'll run in administrator, so you must input your admin password.

4. Shutdown Timer

I usually use this command when I'm downloading a big file at my desktop machine but I have to go to somewhere immediately. When I go back, I want it have done and my computer is turn off. Example: In the browser, the download estimated time is 60 minutes so I must type:

   sudo shutdown -h +70
It means the computer is going down 70 minutes from now. I always add additional time about 10 - 30 minutes. You can also make a schedule shutdown with changing +... to time you want like this command below.

   sudo shutdown -h 00:28

5. Securely Erase Free Space

The biggest secret is when you use usual delete command for Trash on your Mac, the files are not actually deleted. The way to delete them permanently is by secure erase free space.

   diskutil secureErase freespace 1 /dev/HDidentifier

Replace the "HDidentifier" with identifier of your Mac hard drive (see attachment below). This method will not delete the contents of your hard drive, it will delete the free space available.

SHARE

Tedi Wicaksono

Hi. I’m the author of Macgazine.net. Subscribe this site to get everything about Custom Mac.

    Blogger Comment
    Facebook Comment