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    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer
    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer
    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer
    Ebook57 pages24 minutes

    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer

    By Jay Docherty

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    Now updated to cover El Capitan's new Terminal features, including Marks and Restorable Terminal Sessions.

    Take control of your Mac! 61 of the most useful Mac Terminal commands collected for the first time in this handy guide and organized into categories:

    - Terminal basics
    - System commands
    - Power Management & Energy Saving
    - OS X Look and Feel
    - Networking
    - Troubleshooting
    - Users and permissions
    - Text Manipulation
    - iTunes
    - Other useful commands
    - How to use temporary files instead of the clipboard

    To put these tools into context we've also included brief primers on a range of Mac OS X functionality, including:
    - 'Getting started with the Terminal' including a quick exercise
    - bash scripting
    - AppleScript, Automator, and Folder Actions
    - Quick guide to Web Automation
    - How to use the Mac OS X /etc/hosts file to:
    - Block access to websites
    - Easily run multiple websites on a personal web server (e.g.: MAMP) - great for web designers

    This is not an exhaustive reference: We've focused on only the most useful stuff to give you the tools you need.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJay Docherty
    Release dateJul 14, 2013
    ISBN9781301381210
    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer
    Author

    Jay Docherty

    I run a small web development company. I’ve been writing PHP since 2000, and HTML since 1996. I have a passion for the Mac OS and technical writing and in addition to golearnphp.com run the Mac-focussed blog leftcolumn.net.

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    • 4/5
      Good book with great explantations for commands. Great book for beginners with MAC Terminal users.

    Book preview

    The Mac Terminal Reference and Scripting Primer - Jay Docherty

    2016 Introduction

    It’s 2016 and time this book was refreshed. El Capitan is out now, with some cool new features in the Terminal. I also wanted to cover node.js and ruby, both of which make available much-needed functionality to the Terminal. Finally, and most importantly, I’ve beefed up and improved the Terminal Commands chapter, which is the heart of this book. Enjoy.

    Original Introduction

    A very long time ago I wrote a blog post called 40 Useful Mac OS X Shell Scripts and Terminal Commands. It’s been pretty popular ever since, with many thousands of people using it every month. Over the years I’ve been asked for a PDF version but somehow I never quite got around to it. But now I’ve revised and edited it from the original post and added a bunch of new commands. I’ve also included primers on bash scripting, AppleScript and Automator; and tips on integrating these different tools. The book also features a guide to the Mac /etc/hosts file, revised and expanded from two of the most popular posts on the site.

    I’ve put together a collection of resources for owners of this book at www.leftcolumn.net/terminal-resources/; please go there to leave comments and ask questions.

    I hope you find this reference useful. Cheers!

    Jay

    1. How to use Terminal.app

    Before we get on to the reference we need to briefly cover the basics. Terminal.app is located in /Application/Utilities. Usually you run it by double-clicking, but it is also possible to use it to launch associated files. Most commonly this means opening a .sh file (a ‘shell script’) from the Finder. Shell scripts are a way of chaining together small tools so that they

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