There are several ways you can access Terminal. In Finder, navigate to the location of the Terminal application which is:Īn alternate method is from Spotlight Search. Push command and space buttons together to bring up the Spotlight Search bar.
Type in the word Terminal and click on the first suggestion.Įither of these two methods will bring up the Mac command prompt and it will look like a black box as below.ĭepending on your Terminal setting, the appearance may look different. First, it’s best if you adjust the appearance to fit you. Changing the theme of the Terminal lets you do just that. While on Terminal, navigate to ‘Terminal’ on the top bar and select Preferences. In the preferences menu, navigate to the Profiles tab. Here, you can customize the appearance of the Terminal including the background color, text color, and font. Navigating the Terminal might not be as straightforward as navigating a GUI application. Therefore it’s important that you learn a few things that you should keep in mind when learning the Terminal. You cannot use your keyboard and mouse to navigate the Terminal. You navigate the Terminal by using arrow keys. If you want to edit the command you entered, move left or right using the arrow keys until you reach the place where you would like to edit. Once you have entered several commands and you would like to enter one of those commands again, you can use up and down arrow keys to navigate through the past commands you have entered until you select the desired command. This way you do not have to type the same command over and over again. Terminal commands should be typed exactly as they are shown. Every character, every space, and every symbol matters. Removing any characters will give you an unexpected result. Once you enter a command, to execute it you need to press the return/enter key. Once you hit the return/enter key, you can interrupt the command by pressing cmd and C together. This will stop the command from completing its task. The commands you run on the Terminal will execute in the current file location.
To change the file location, you will use the Terminal command introduced below. There are tons of commands that you can make use of. Let’s focus on some of the most common MacOS Terminal commands you need to be familiar with when you are mastering the Terminal. There are a few features that are applicable for any command.
If you do not know what a command does or what a specific parameter related to a command does, the manual (man) page will provide you with all the information you need.Ĭurrent Directory. Wherever you are required to enter a directory location, this will refer to the parent of your current directory Wherever you are required to enter a directory location, this will refer to the directory you are currently in. For example “*.jpg” means any file with the jpg extension. Some commands require you to be a superuser. In such cases, you can use this command to gain such privileges provided you are an admin of the system.
You will be required to enter your administrator password to execute such commands. This command will display all the commands you have entered.ĭeletes the command history of the Terminal The Terminal keeps a history of all the commands you have entered. These commands are the most commonly used set of commands.
Includes information like file mode, owner, group name and many more Print working directory (Outputs the address of the current directory )ĭisplays the names of files and subdirectories containing in the folder These are very helpful when you want to list the contents of a folder. Lists detailed directory contents including hidden files. This is especially useful when selecting the directory you want to run a command in.Ĭhange directory (If the directory you would like to navigate to is not in the current directory, the complete file address is required ) The following commands will let you change the directory that you are currently working in.