If you are looking for a list with the terminal commands for mac, you have come to the right article. In this article we show you the most useful terminal commands for Mac on a day-to-day basis to carry out actions manually without relying on the macOS graphical interface.
How to open Terminal on Mac
The fastest method to access Terminal on Mac is to use the keyboard shortcut Command + Space bar, type Port and click on the first result.
Terminal Processes
ps-ax
Shows the processes that are currently running. The command "a" shows the processes of all users and the command "x" shows the processes that are not connected with the Terminal
ps-aux
Show all processes with %cpu; %mem; page in and PID
top
Shows real-time information about the processes that are running
top -ocpu -s 5
Shows processes sorted by CPU usage and updating every 5 seconds
top -or size
Sort processes by memory usage
kill PID
Exit process with ID . The PID will be displayed as a column in Activity Monitor
ps -ax | grep
Find a process by name or PID
Terminal Search
find -name <«»file»»>»
Find all files named within . We can use asterisks (*) to search for parts of filenames
"grep" »» »
Find all matches of within
"grep -rl "" »» »
Find all files containing within
Basic Terminal Commands
/ (Forward Slash)
Top level directory
.
Access current directory
..
top directory
~
main directory
sudo [command]
Execute command with superuser security privileges
nano [files]
Open the Terminal editor
open [file]
Open a file
[command] -h
Get help on a command
man [command]
Shows the help manual of the command
Management of Terminal Permits
ls -ld
Show the default permission of a source directory
ls -ld/
Show read permissions; write and access of a given folder
chmod 755
Change the permission of a file to 755
chmod -R 600
Change the permission of a folder and all its contents to 600
chown :
Change the ownership of a file to user and group If we add the command “-R” the contents of the folder will be included
Managing files and directories in Terminal
du
Using the list for each subdirectory and its contents
du-sh [folder]
Readable output of all files in a directory
you -p
Show an entry for each specified file
du-sk* | sort -nr
List files and folders (summarizing size including subfolders). We can substitute sk* for sm* to list the directories in MB
df -h
Shows the free disk space of your system
df-H
Calculate free disk space in powers of 1.000 (instead of 1.024)
mkdir
Create a new folder called
mkdir -p /
Create nested folders
mkdir
Create multiple folders at once
"mkdir" »»»
Create a folder with a space in the file name
rmdir
Delete a folder (only works with empty folders)
rm -R
Delete a folder and its contents
touch
Create a new file without any extension
zip
Copy a file to the folder
zip
Copy a file to the current folder
zip ~/ /
Copy a file to the folder and rename the copied file
cp -R <«»new dir»»>»
Copy a folder to a new folder with spaces in the file name
cp -i
Warns you before copying a file with an overwrite warning message
zip /users/
Copy multiple files to a folder
ditto -V [folder path][new folder]
Copy the contents of a folder to a new folder. The "-V" command displays a status line for each copied file.
Access and delete files and folders with Terminal
rm
Delete a file permanently
rm -i
Delete a file requesting confirmation
rm -f
Force unconfirmed deletion of a file
rm
Delete multiple files without confirmation
mv
move/rename
mv
Move a file to the folder (overwriting the existing file with the same name if it exists)
mv -i
The "-i" command displays a warning that it will overwrite the destination file.
mv *.png ~/
Move all PNG files in the current folder to a different folder
cd
Home directory
CD [folder]
change directory
cd ~
main directory
CD/
Unity root
cd -
Previous directory or folder you last browsed
pwd
show working directory
cd ..
Upload to main directory
CD../..
Go up two levels
ls
Show the name of the files and subdirectories of the directory
ls -C
Show the name of the files and subdirectories of the directory in columns
ls -a
List all entries (including those with .(dot) and ..(double dot))
ls-1
Show the list of files in the format of one entry per line
ls -F
Show a / (slash) immediately after each path that is a directory
ls -S
Sort files or entries by size
Ls -l
List in long format. Includes file mode; the name of the owner and the group; the date and time the file was modified; the path name; etc.
ls -l /
File system list from root with symbolic links
ls - lt
List of files sorted by modification time (newest first)
ls -lh
Long listing with readable file sizes in KB; MB or GB
ls-lo
List of file names with size; owner and flags
ls-la
Detailed list of directory content (including hidden files)
Keyboard shortcuts in Terminal
Tab
Autocomplete file and folder names
Ctrl + A
Go to the beginning of the line you are typing on
Ctrl + E
Go to the end of the line you are typing on
Ctrl + U
Delete the line before the cursor
Ctrl + K
Delete the line after the cursor
Ctrl + W
Delete the word before the cursor
Ctrl + T
Swap the last two characters before the cursor
Esc + T
Swap the last two words before the cursor
Ctrl + L
clear the screen
Ctrl + C
Stop whatever is running
Ctrl + D
Exit the current shell
Options + →
Move the cursor one word forward
Options + ←
Move the cursor back one word
Ctrl + F
Move the cursor one character forward
Ctrl + B
Move the cursor back one character
Ctrl + Z
Put what is running in a suspended background process
Ctrl+_
Undo the last command
Option + Shift + Cmd + C
copy plain text
Shift + Cmd + V
paste the selection
exit
End a shell session
Network commands in Terminal
ping
Ping the host and display its status
who's
Obtain whois information of a domain
curl -O
Download a file over HTTP; HTTPS or FTP
ssh @
Establish an SSH connection to with the user
scp @ :/remote/path
Copy yet remote
arp -a
Shows a list of all devices on your local network including the IP and MAC address of all devices
ifconfig en0
Shows the IP and MAC address of your device
Command history
Ctrl + R
Search for previously used commands
history
Shows the commands that we have previously written
![value]
Execute the last used command that starts with a value
