Shell Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Terminally Geeky: How to tell if a script is being called from launchd

by TJ Luoma (Feb 25th, 2013)

Warning: command line geekiness ahead. When writing shell scripts, I often send interactive output to the user via echo to give feedback or information. But if the shell script is called on a schedule via OS X's behind-the-scenes process launcher launchd, rather than from a Terminal session, ...

Hands-on with the iPad ClamCase keyboard/stand

by Mike Schramm (Jan 8th, 2011)

We've been stopping by the trailer of our sister site Engadget quite often here at CES for the excellent company (and the excellent Wi-Fi), and while we were in there the other day, the good folks from ClamCase came by to show off their product. Engadget got their own look, but we were kindly ...

Friday Favorite (on a Tuesday): OpenTerminal

by Brett Terpstra (Jun 22nd, 2010)

I'm aware that it's not, in fact, Friday. When we find an app that's not new, but is really useful to us, we usually save it for a Friday before we salivate all over it. I'm an impatient guy, though, so here's your Friday Favorite on a Tuesday. It's five o'clock somewhere. This one's for the geeks. ...

Snow Leopard Fixes: Terminal shell workaround

by Erica Sadun (Oct 23rd, 2009)

Ever since I installed Snow Leopard, I've been dealing with a particularly annoying bug. Terminal keeps forgetting my shell preferences. I generally prefer to use tcsh rather than bash. This is mostly because I'm a technological dinosaur. I also have a lot invested into my ancient and extensive ...

Revisiting the randomized signature AppleScript, now with API goodness

by Brett Terpstra (Feb 10th, 2009)

When I shared an AppleScript last week which created randomized signatures using TextExpander, I promised to revisit it when the iheartquotes.com API started working again. It's working right now, but it seems to go up and down; check this link before you try the script and make sure you get a ...

dsh: dancer's shell gives you power over multiple Macs

by Michael Rose (Jan 11th, 2008)

This month's MacTech magazine offers a feature article by Edward Marczak on using dsh, the "dancer's shell" or distributed shell utility, to batch-administer machines in a single blast without having to hit each one, or use a pricey management tool such as ARD or LANrev. Although dsh isn't included ...

DTerm: give your Mac a little shell love

by Brett Terpstra (Jan 10th, 2008)

DTerm is a utility just released by Decimus Software Inc. It's a Leopard-only app that provides a hotkey-triggered HUD which allows shell commands to be run from anywhere in OS X. In case you're wondering why, just imagine what less window switching and screen clutter could mean for productivity on ...

A (slightly) simpler command-line Spotlight search

by Brett Terpstra (Jan 4th, 2008)

Erica mentioned mdfind a little while ago. It's not a brand new tool, but there hasn't been a great deal of discussion surrounding it. For shell scripters and Terminal junkies, it's a goldmine of search goodness that can make you never want to key out find . -name "letsgogetcoffeewhilewewait.rb" or ...

ssh on iPhone

by Erica Sadun (Jul 23rd, 2007)

Over at the #iphone channel at irc.osx86.hu, the thoroughly awesome NerveGas has figured out how to enable ssh on the iPhone without using restore mode. The secret lies in overwriting an existing binary and plist to trick the iPhone into calling chmod on the Dropbear ssh server and making it ...

Terminal Tip: Finding by Time

by Erica Sadun (Apr 27th, 2007)

Have you ever lost track of a file that you were just working on? Or were you ever curious about which files an installer has just added or modified? The command line find command offers a simple way to track down any files created or updated within the last few minutes. Its amin and cmin flags ...