Or if it’s the middle of the day, and you need to restart your Mac, type : sudo. Monitoring CPU load and memory usage on Mac OS X command line (Terminal) sar -d -f. Though OS X doesn’t really place much emphasis on hidden files and folders, some files and folders are hidden by default. Finally, when it’s time to go to bed, do your Mac a favor and let it go to sleep too. This will get us a list of all of the processes cpu usage, like. Some tips may only work for a particular OS, though I’ve taken care to only select Terminal commands which should mostly work on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion. Remove a directory and its contents cp -R.Sudo: Some commands require you to be a su.

Create a folder with a space in its name rm -R . However, I strongly advise you to back up your Mac fully and proceed at your own risk! Of course, defining the best Terminal commands for Mac really depends on what you want to get out of this tool. File and Directory management mkdir .

This is very unlikely and as long as you steer clear from “sudo” commands which require you to enter your password, you should be perfectly safe. Usually it takes destructive behaviour or terrible luck to ruin your Mac’s OS X installation beyond repair, but using the Terminal could potentially bypass such safety and enable a user to cause themselves serious headaches, or even (in extreme cases) a completely ruined operating system. Especially useful for creating profiles shortcuts for common directories and commands and providing split pane views, a number of its features are detailed on its site. This tutorial will discuss some of the best and most popular beginner-friendly Terminal tricks and tips to be found on the Internet. An emulator for the default terminal provided by Mac OSX, iTerm provides extra features that the default terminal doesnt.

Common mac terminal commands