Terminal Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Terminal Tips: bash cron script to keep an app running

by TJ Luoma (Oct 21st, 2010)

Do you have some apps that you want to keep running all the time? If so, and if you're not afraid of the Terminal or the command line, I have a script for you. When I come home at the end of the day, Dropbox has stopped running on my iMac. I'm running the latest version, and it works fine on my ...

How to replace iTunes 10's grey with eye-popping black

by Dave Caolo (Sep 18th, 2010)

Several iTunes 10 users were less than thrilled with the new all-grey UI theme. I've gotten used to it, but I agree it was a bit prettier with the color icons in the sidebar. Here's how you can replace the grey entirely with an eye-popping, high-contrast black and white. First, quit iTunes. Then ...

iTerm 2 in early development

by TJ Luoma (Sep 2nd, 2010)

Power users of the command-line are no doubt familiar with iTerm, the free replacement terminal application. iTerm has been the go-to alternative for people who wanted tabbed windows and other advanced features. Development of iTerm has been fairly slow and irregular. The initial release was back in ...

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 ...

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. ...

Use networksetup to change AirPort networks from the command line

by TJ Luoma (May 6th, 2010)

The other night I needed to change Wi-Fi networks on a computer that I was connected to via ssh. Just about every page that I found via Google led me to try the exact same thing (type "airport -A") with one minor problem: it didn't work. Let's back up a little bit. You may know that there is a ...

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 ...

msmtp, a free tool to send email from Terminal

by TJ Luoma (May 4th, 2010)

I fully expected that my article on mailsend would lead to several "Why don't you use use XYZ instead?" replies, and it did. Suggestions included Ruby, Python, iPhone push notifications, and configuring postfix/sendmail. But one suggestion was to use msmtp, and that turned out to be the golden ...

Use mailsend to send email from the Terminal

by TJ Luoma (May 3rd, 2010)

Update: After this article was written I learned of mstmp which I highly recommend instead of mailsend. There are times that I want my iMac to be able to email me: when certain scripts run via cron or launchd, when certain events happen (a backup has been completed), etc. I've found that none of ...

Top Terminal easter eggs

by Michael Grothaus (Apr 4th, 2010)

Yeah, the headline makes it sound like the eggs are on their deathbed. But no, easter eggs (in software jargon) are little presents or surprises that developers have slipped into an application or operating system. One excellent place to find easter eggs in Mac OS X is in the Terminal. Now ...

Terminal Tips: Generate random filenames for digital photo frame images

by Aron Trimble (Feb 25th, 2010)

It's not at all unlikely that you or a relative have received a digital photo frame as some sort of gift. The concept is great, one frame on your mantle, many pictures on display. Unfortunately, Apple has yet to enter the photo frame market -- at least until the iPad is released, that is. In the ...

Fix iPhone EXIF rotation from the command line

by TJ Luoma (Feb 17th, 2010)

My iPhone is the camera that i use more than any other, but there's one thing that has consistently annoyed me about it. Apple uses an EXIF tag to rotate images. This can be a problem when you share images with others. Safari will rotate the image correctly, but no other browser will. Adding to ...

MaComfort brings a little Mac back to your PC

by Mike Schramm (Feb 4th, 2010)

Let's face it -- as much as we love our Macs, sometimes you've got to use a PC, whether that be for work or at a friend's house, or just for playing some games. But when you absolutely must use Windows, maComfort can make the transition easier. It's a free Windows application (with some premium ...

Manually schedule Software Update 'the OS X way' with launchd

by Brett Terpstra (Jan 10th, 2010)

In response to a Macworld article, TidBits' Chris Pepper elaborated on ways to run Software Update, Apple's means of delivering updates and patches, on your own schedule. Beginning with the fact that Software Update schedules its next update based on the time it's currently being run, setting the ...

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 ...