Command Line Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Mac 101: Encode media from Automator or the command line in Lion

by Kelly Hodgkins (Nov 22nd, 2011)

There's an easy way in OS X 10.7 Lion to convert video or audio from one format to another, using a fixed suite of conversion settings. One approach uses Automator and can be launched from the Finder. The other uses the Terminal application and the afconvert (for audio) or avconvert (for video) ...

TUAW's Daily Mac App: DTerm

by Samuel Gibbs (Aug 2nd, 2011)

The Terminal is a Mac power-user's best friend. When you need to get something specific done, access the underlying system, modify files or change some settings, command line is often the best and only way to get it done. Instead of having to go to it, DTerm brings the command line to ...

Terminal Tips: Unfreeze your Mac

by TJ Luoma (Jul 12th, 2010)

Look, it's nothing to be ashamed of, it happens to everyone: your Mac has frozen up and won't respond. I know, I know, for years we Mac folks used to love poking fun at Windows because it freezes up. Apple even made a commercial about it. As someone who has used both, I will say that I have seen ...

Rudix, a lightweight way to add new Unix utilities

by TJ Luoma (May 4th, 2010)

Rudix offers a collection of Unix utilities which do not come with OS X by default. When setting up a new Mac I always install these Unix utilities: wget, ncftp, lynx with SSL support, and the GNU Core Utilities. I compile them manually whenever possible, despite options like MacPorts or Fink. I ...

Homebrew, the perfect gift for command line lovers

by Brett Terpstra (Dec 25th, 2009)

If you're an OS X user who spends as much time on the command line as you do in the GUI, you're probably familiar with the MacPorts and Fink package management projects, making open source software easier to compile and run on Mac OS X. You may also be well-aware of the shortcomings of these ...

3.0 firmware release expected at 10am PT/1pm ET, quick Terminal tip to check

by Erica Sadun (Jun 17th, 2009)

Hey, iPhone 3G owners: Please do not download the 2,1 firmware files listed below. They are for the 3G S and will not work on your phone. Read the whole post for details. The correct firmware for the 3G will start with "iPhone1,2" instead. If you were up all night waiting for the new iPhone OS to ...

LiveChat: Pwnage and Beyond

by Erica Sadun (Jul 21st, 2008)

This weekend, the iPhone Dev Team delivered an iPhone 2.0 jailbreak. Today, TUAW invites you to chat about the jailbreak, about the new Cydia installer, and about the future of iPhone jailbreak development and use. Follow the jump to join in our discussion. ...

Mac 101: Get that "stuck" disc out of your Mac

by Cory Bohon (Jun 23rd, 2008)

Welcome to another Mac 101 here at TUAW. Mac 101 is our recurring feature where we point out some tips and tricks for folks new to the Mac. Remember, if you're a Mac expert this post isn't for you. Have you ever tried to unmount a disc in Mac OS X, but it simply wouldn't come out of your Mac's ...

Terminal Tip: Syncing your iPhone or iPod touch from the command line

by Erica Sadun (Jan 16th, 2008)

This is one of those completely useless but cool things that one figures out when one is spending far too much time trying to do something else and not accomplishing it. In my case, I'm trying to figure out how to force an iPod touch or iPhone to load a backup set. (Do you know? Let me know in the ...

Yet even MORE evidence of upcoming iTunes rentals

by Erica Sadun (Nov 21st, 2007)

Today's evidence comes to you courtesy of the Apple iPhone. iPhone Developer Pumpkin. He has discovered even more rental-specific information, this time in the iPhone's lockdown daemon file. Lockdown is responsible for authorizing your iPhone for services. For example the lockdown files are ...

Grab Clean Leopard Window Shots with CleanGrab

by Erica Sadun (Nov 7th, 2007)

Ryan Irelan doesn't like the way Leopard grabs window shots. When you press Command-Shift-4/Spacebar, Leopard includes about 50 extra pixels of transparent background around your Windows. This extra space grabs the window's drop shadow along with the window itself. Enter CleanGrab. CleanGrab is ...

Play Audio URLs from the iPhone Command Line

by Erica Sadun (Aug 17th, 2007)

You never know when instant karma is gonna getcha. Take my playaudio application. Yesterday, I was chatting with some developer buddies about maybe putting together an Internet radio application and discussing the fact that the Celestial iPhone framework is essentially QuickTime repackaged. While ...

Open man pages from Xcode

by Mike Schramm (Jul 30th, 2007)

Toxic Software's posted a useful little script if you spend any amount of time in Xcode-- because manopen is having trouble with Leopard, John punched up a shell/Applescript to open man pages directly from within Xcode's command line. It's tiny (and doesn't really do much-- just opens an Xcode Help ...

Terminal Tip: Interactive Command-line File Encryption

by Erica Sadun (May 22nd, 2007)

In OS X, you can always toss a file onto the command line instead of laboriously typing out a complete path name because Terminal supports drag and drop. Over at Murphymac, Murphy has posted a video showing you how to create a shell script using DES3 encryption to protect your files. It takes ...

Terminal Tip: Output man pages as plain text with col

by Erica Sadun (Apr 19th, 2007)

Ever try to open a man page in TextEdit using man | open -f? You end up with the kind of unreadable repeated characters shown here. This all dates back to the days of dot matrix and daisy wheel printing when the only way you could produce bold type was to repeatedly print characters. Fortunately, ...