Mac OS X command line quick start
9 November 2005
In the last post, Introduction to OS X command line, we looked how to get an xterm and a full-screen console. In this post we are going to get our hands dirty with a few quick and easy commands
Open your terminal or login to a real console (link to last post). We are going to try out some basic commands. For each command below, type the command and then press enter.
Simple Navigation
Start with: ls
You will now see your user files. Now Type: cd Desktop
And then again type: ls
You will now see the files that you left on your Desktop (which to Bash is a folder like any other). Next type: ``cd ..
And again: ls
You know should be able to navigate pretty well!
Ping - Pong
Ping is a very simple but affective tool to check whether you can connect to a remote computer. With sonar, you throw a sound at something, and if it bounces back then you know it is there. You can ping an IP address (such as 66.249.93.104) or a domain name (such google.com) .
Type:
ping www.google.com
On normal GNU/Linux/BSD machines, Control and C is the quit or cancel command. If you are using the full console then you can use Control+C to stop pinging Google and quit the ping application . If you are using the xterm, you will need to use Command (the button with an Apple on) and C to quit ping. In this blog, where I say that a keyboard command is Control and something, it may be the Command key on a Mac, you should be able to figure it out pretty easily though.
Text Editors
Now Mac OS X comes with a number of the best command-line text editors, although they are not the latest versions by anny means. Later in this series we will examine ways of getting command-line applications. For now, the Apple packaged versions will do just fine.
Emacs
For the ride of your life, type
emacs
Emacs is the 'one true editor'. If you start typing and playing with it you will understand pretty quickly. Elsewhere in this blog there is more help using command-line text editors.
Below 'C-', that is the letter C followed by a hyphen, means that you type them at the same time. There is no real difference in this blog if I write C-x or C+X.
Type C-h followed by C-p for a very important work by Richard Stallman which is required reading for all computer users.
Type C-h followed by C-? for more ways to get help.
Type C-x followed by C-c to quit emacs.
Vi / Vim
Vi is a text editor like Emacs but it has two modes: input mode and command mode (sometimes called 'beep mode'). To go between modes hit the Escape key (esc), you have to hit it as fast as you can (as if you are playing whack-a-mole).
There is more written about Vi and Vim elsewhere on this blog. All you need to know now is to type vi to open it, have a play and then type :q to close it. If it does not close then you are currently in insert mode, press esc then :q to exit vim.
More Fun
You can read the rest of the blog, everything should be accessible in one form or another. In the next few posts we will look at extending the Mac OS X command-line by examining methods of obtaining more utilities and programs.
1 Andy Mac says...
Using vi/vim - the first problem I encountered is no "insert" key on Mac - from the above it seems Esc should toggle command and insert mode - but it doesn't work for me in 10.3.9 ... I own the file with rwx permissions ... I've given up and used pico, which is also present and somewhat friendlier than the vi interface IMO.
Posted at 11:50 a.m. on April 20, 2006
2 Seth says...
For vi on a Mac: to enter insert mode type "i'. To get back out of insert mode hit esc. I occasionally switch between vi and pico (depending on my mood and what machine I am working with), but maybe I will try using emacs for once.
Posted at 5:32 p.m. on May 12, 2007
3 Javier Almaraz says...
What about starting applications from the command line ??.. the Dot apps files are directories actually... so ??.. where the binaries are ??
Posted at 4:18 p.m. on June 6, 2008
4 Rick says...
@Javier: open /fullpathname/application.app
So, if I want to open netscape, I type:
open /Applications/Netscape/netscape.app
If the folder name has spaces, put the whole path in quotes:
open "/Applications/Microsoft Office X/Microsoft Word.app"
Posted at 7:51 a.m. on August 7, 2008