Top 50 Terminal Commands | Mac Tricks And Tips

Terminal is Mac OS X way into the command line world. It is designed for you to typing in specific commands that you would not be able to do otherwise. This is great for customizing your Mac and unveiling hidden features. It is also a good way to destroy you system because you screwed something up.

What I have done is crawl the web look of the Top 50 Terminal commands. These commands are designed to make you make look cooler, act quicker or be generally useful. I have tried to keep commands down to one line, so they are simple and effective to use. Each item will include a description of what it does as well as an appropriate picture is necessary. Many of these commands appear as seperate posts all over the web, but never in one big list. I have tried to keep the amount of sudo commands down to a minimum as this can easily destroy your system. Especially if you go sudoing every thing. I have tried to give the best description I can, if you have a problem leave a comment and I will see if I can solve it. The list is in no particular order. Most of the commands can be reverted by replacing YES with NO and 1 with 0, the opposite. Most of these commands are Leopard compatible and many may not work on Tiger. Try them and see what happens.

1) 2D Dock

This quite a popular hack for the people running Leopard and don’t like the 3D feel. It changes the 3D dock to a flat 2D version. To enter copy and past the following code.

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES killall Dock

2) Gradient Behind A Stack Item

One of my favourite hacks that enables you to put a small gradient behind an icon. I think this should be enabled by default.

defaults write com.apple.dock mouse-over-hilte-stack -boolean YES killall Dock

3) Add A Message To The Login Window

This little Terminal command enables you to add a message of your choice to the Login window. Pretty cool and deserved a screenshot if I new how to take on while not logged in. Warning it’s a sudo command which can be dangerous.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText "Your Message"

Replace “Your Message” with the message of your choice, don’t make it to long. If you want to revert it do the following.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText ""

4) Add An Exposè Button To The Desktop

If you have reconfigured the F9 and F10 keys to something different you may want to use exposè. This hack adds a bigish blue button onto the desktop to enable you to use exposè. Clicking on it shows all the windows from one application (F10 default), option clicking it shows all windows (F9 default).

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool YES killall Dock
5) Address Book Debug Menu

If you have some trouble with Address Book it may be useful to open up the debug menu as well as this use some of the hidden features. Make sure address book is closed first before applying the code. If you want to revert it remove YES in the string.

defaults write com.apple.addressbook ABShowDebugMenu -bool YES
6) Increase Dock Magnification Size

This little hack lets you increase the size of the magnification of the dock icons. Don’t go past 512.

defaults write com.apple.dock largesize -int 512

7) Increase Desktop Icon Size

If you want massive icons on you desktop this little hack lets you increase the icons to 512 pixels x 512 pixels. This is massive, may slow down on older machines. I don’t think it goes larger than 512.

defaults write com.apple.finder DesktopViewOptions -dict IconSize -integer 512 killall Finder

8) Changing the Format Of Screen Shots

If you use the screen shot function, you may want to change the format of the images, this is not easily done normally. Where jpg is in the code you can change this to the format your want, png bmp gif etc. You need to log out and back in again, or restart for the changes to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

9) Change The Login Picture

If you get a bored of the space picture used on the login screen, you can change it with this little bit of code. Change the file location in the second half of the string to the exact file location of your chosen picture.

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/vortex.png"

10) Change The Loading Bar In Safari To A Pie Chart

This is a Safari 3 hack, so it might not work. This changes the blue bar that goes across the address bar into a small blue pie chart. Insert false instead of true to reverse.

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugUsePieProgressIndicator -bool true
11) Clear The Open With Menu

If you right click on a file you can open it with many applications. Sometimes your OS can get a little confused and list many applications. This is to clear this list and start again. The code below is all on one line.

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user

12) Change The Delay When Dragging Windows In Spaces

This simple hack changes the delay time it takes to drag windows around in spaces, its currently set to 0.75

defaults write com.apple.dock workspaces-edge-delay -float 0.5

13) Disable Dashboard

If you don’t want or like the dashboard running you can disable it. Change YES to NO to enable it again.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES killall Dock

14) Enable Double Scroll Arrows

This little hack enables the double arrow set for up and down, left or right, to be at both ends of the scroll bar. Handy if you like the double arrows. Use System Preferences to reset.

defaults write “Apple Global Domain” AppleScrollBarVariant DoubleBoth

15) Disable Tooltips In Safari

This quick little hack for Safari that removes the tooltips you get when you hover over certain elements.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitShowsURLsInToolTips 0

16) Increase The Dock Size

Command #6 enables you to change the magnification. This command enables you to change the size of the dock. Use the sliders in System Preferences to reduce this size. Don’t go larger 256.

defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 256

17) Disable the Crash Dialog Box

This disables the quit dialog box when an application crashes. Type prompt to enable again.

defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

18)Drag A Widget Onto The Desktop

Probably one of the coolest hacks. This command enables widgets to be placed onto the desktop. Drag a widget around and press F12 to drag it onto the desktop. Repeat the process again to drag a widget back onto the dashboard. This may need you to log off or restart for it to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

19) Enable Debug Menu In Safari

Adding debug menus to programs is great as you can access a whole range of features. This one is for Safari.

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

20) Enable The Path View In Finder

One of may favourite hacks as it lets you see the current path of the Finder window you are in. Its great if you work with a lot of windows.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

21)Enable Time Machine On Unsupported Drives

Another favourite hack of mine, simply because it enable Time Machine to work on unsupported drives such as a NAS. Use with caution as it is unsupported.

defaults write com.apple.systempreferences TMShowUnsupportedNetworkVolumes 1

22) Enable Web Inspector

This is a very detailed web inspector that enables you to find out specific information about a page. It is accessible through the debug menu but this enables you to use it without. You can quickly access it through right-click.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitDeveloperExtras -bool true

23) Enable Debug in iCal

Another debug menu (I like debug menus) this time its for iCal. You need to restart iCal for the changes to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.iCal IncludeDebugMenu YES

24) Enable Quit In Finder

This is a very useful command for anyone who does a lot of fiddling and needs to quit Finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES killall Finder

25) Force Mail To Display In Plain Text

If you have problems with HTML emails or you just want emails to be displayed in plain text use the following command. You need to restart Mail for the changes to take effect. Replace with false to revert.

defaults write com.apple.mail PreferPlainText -bool TRUE

26) Increase Time Machine Backups

If you do a lot of work on you Mac, and you want time machine to back up more frequently you need to change the value. It is in seconds. The default is set to an hour which is 3600. Change this value to suit, half and hour is 1800 seconds.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto StartInterval -int 1800

27) Kill A Process

Sometimes you just need a process to stop running. If you want to kill it in Terminal with out using Activity Monitor, find the process ID (In Activity Monitor) and then use the following command. Only really useful if you don’t like much clicking or are writing a program.

kill PID 478

28) Let Terminal Talk

If you are bored one day you can get Terminal to quickly talk anything back to you using the voice engine. Replace hello with anything you want.

say hello

29) Make Hidden Applications Icons Transparent

If you hide a lot of applications you can make there icons transparent in the dock. A very good visual clue.

defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool YES killall Dock

30) Make The Dock Spring Loaded

Makes the dock spring loaded so you can open files or windows from within the dock.

defaults write com.apple.dock enable-spring-load-actions-on-all-items -boolean YES

31) Recent Applications Stack

This command creates a new stack in your dock so you can view the recently used Applications.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

32) Change The Arrows In iTunes

Normally the arrows in iTunes link to the music store, adding this command enables you to search your library. You need to click on the song first for the arrows to appear.

defaults write com.apple.iTunes invertStoreLinks -bool YES

33) Pin The Dock To The Left

This command pins the dock to the left hand side of the screen. I’m not sure what happens if you have the dock on the left or right edge. Replace start with middle to revert.

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start

34) Pin The Dock To The Right

Exactly the same as above except it pins the dock to the right hand side of the screen.

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end

35) Play Star Wars Episode IV

Using a simple telnet address you Terminal will connect in and play Star Wars Episode IV in its ASCII glory.

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

36) Quicklook A File

Quicklook is a great little application in Leopard. The command lets you quicklook a file right in Terminal. First you need to change the folder by using the “cd” command and then the folder you want. To enable this command to work you need to type the file name exactly.

qlmanage -p "Jaguar Aqua Graphite.jpg"

37) Disable The Spotlight Icon

This command removes the spotlight icon. Type 755 to re-enable it, instead of 0.

sudo chmod 0 /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app killall Spotlight
38) Remove The Stripes In List View

A simple hack that removes the alternating stripes in list view in finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder FXListViewStripes -bool FALSE killall Finder

39) Turn The Menu Bar White

If you don’t like the menu bar in its cool transparent glory you can change it so it appears white. This requires a password and you will need to restart you mac.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 1

40) Turn The Menu Bar Grey

If you don’t like the white version of the menu bar you can change it so it appears gret.

sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0

41) Revert The Menu Bar Back To Default

If you prefer the transparent menu bar and you want it back type the following into Terminal.

sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables'

42) Set The Expanded Print Dialogue As Default

If you want access to a lot of the extra print menus on by default you can use the following command to enable you to do this. Requires restart.

defaults write -g PMPrintingExpandedStateForPrint -bool TRUE

43) Set The Expanded Save Dialogue As Default

Similar as the print dialogue this sets the save dialogue to the expanded view as default. Requires restart.

defaults write -g NSNavPanelExpandedStateForSaveMode -bool TRUE

44) Set The Screen Saver As The Wallpaper

This command sets the currently selected screen saver as the desktop background. Use command + c or . to stop while in Terminal. Alternatively you can use wallsaver.

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background

45) Set The History Limit In Safari To A Number Of Items

If you don’t want a massive history you can set it to a limited number of items. Change the number to suit.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryItemLimit 2000

46) Set The History Limit In Safari To A Number Of Days

Similar to the hack above you can set the number of days Safari keeps its history.

defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitHistoryAgeInDaysLimit 30

47) Show Hidden Files In Finder

A lot of the files in Finder are hidden. This is probably a wise choice by Apple as there are countless things you can screw up. But if you want to take a look at how many there are and what they are you can show them within Finder. Be careful as these files are needed by the system, if you screw something up don’t come complaining. Repeat the command with false to revert. The image above, click for larger version, show the amount of files there actually is, with these hidden there is only 4 shown normally.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

48) Skip Disk Image Verification

If you want to save some time you can skip the disk image verification for a disk image. Potentially risky as a whole load of things could go wrong without you knowing.

com.apple.frameworks.diskimages skip-verify TRUE

49) Show SubFolders In Graphical Format In Terminal

This is a very cool little hack that enables you to show an ASCII graphical view of sub folders. Use the cd command to change to a directory other wise the command will list every folder. For more information look here.

ls -R | grep ":$" | sed -e 's/:$//' -e 's/[^-][^\/]*\//--/g' -e 's/^/ /' -e 's/-/|/'

50) Speed Up Dialogue Boxes

Most dialogue boxes have a cool animation effect that looks cool. If you want to speed this up you can change the speed at which is renders so it appears almost instantly. The default is 0.2.

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime 0.01

Thats 50 top Terminal commands, I wanted to go to 100 but I couldn’t find 100 good commands. If you have any tips please leave a comment below explaining what the tips does and why you like it. If you just want to leave a comment you can, just be clear, since garbled comments are hard to understand.

If you want to take your skills with Terminal a bit further I recommend you check out the Terminal Category on this site. If you fancy reading a book there is a couple on Amazon that I regularly see mentioned and recommend, O’reilly Unix Geeks and Unix Under the Hood both are designed for Mac OS X and take Terminal further.

If you want to keep up with the latests post from Mac Tricks And Tips I recommend you subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Where To Next?

121 Responses to “Top 50 Terminal Commands”

1

Great resource, I’m still using Tiger and don’t plan on upgrading anytime soon, bu a lot of these were very applicable.

I never knew that Safari had the equivalent of Firebug built in, I think that just became my browser of choice.

Showing which icons are hidden is also rather convenient.

Comment By Aea on February 12th, at 5:07 am
2

I might consider using safari again since it has firebug.

Thanks for commenting.

Comment By James Powell on February 12th, at 8:26 am
3

I didn’t digg it, but I gave it a thumbs up on stumbleupon.

Comment By Joel Stephan on February 13th, at 9:57 pm
4

Thanks

Comment By James Powell on February 13th, at 10:30 pm
5

Help! I tried the expose icon one, but I don’t like it. How can I get rid of it?

Comment By Anonymous on February 16th, at 11:38 pm
6

I figured it out, nevermind! Thanks anyway.

Comment By Anonymous on February 17th, at 12:13 am
7

i did the dock icon magnification thing how do i get rid of it???

Comment By Anonymous on February 19th, at 1:12 am
8

Type in a lower number.

Comment By James Powell on February 19th, at 8:43 am
9

How do I undo this… NOw nothing happens when I press f12.

18)Drag A Widget Onto The Desktop

Probably one of the coolest hacks. This command enables widgets to be placed onto the desktop. Drag a widget around and press F12 to drag it onto the desktop. Repeat the process again to drag a widget back onto the dashboard. This may need you to log off or restart for it to take effect.

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Comment By phil on February 21st, at 4:44 pm
10

Restart your computer or do the same command and replace yes with no. You may have to restart finder.

Comment By James Powell on February 21st, at 4:46 pm
11

James – Thanks for the speedy response. I try the suggested remedy, but no luck. Status Quo.

F12 – Does nothing, but my mouse disappears.

Note: I am running 10.4.11

Comment By phil on February 22nd, at 2:06 am
12

Any follow up after the last recommended post. Status Quo at my end.

Any help is appreciated.

Dashboard appears to be running but I cannot display Widgets.

Comment By phil on February 25th, at 4:57 pm
13

Phil, I think the best bet is to try and reverse the command. I really don’t no what the problem is. Sorry.

Comment By James Powell on February 25th, at 5:54 pm
14

i can’t seem to get the dock back to 3D even when i add a “NO” to the end of the line. please help!

Comment By Anonymous on April 20th, at 1:18 pm
15

Ok i tried the dock magnification code and it didnt work, i have a 10.4.11 mac. Do you need your system preferences to be unlocked so this works. This macintosh is a school computer

Comment By Anonymous on April 25th, at 10:56 pm
16

It may only be a Leopard tips. I don’t no about unlocked preferences.

Comment By James Powell on April 25th, at 10:58 pm
17

Hi!
Great Article!
Does anyone know how to reverse #9, “Change the Login Picture” back to the original one?
Thanks!

Comment By foo on May 1st, at 8:04 pm
18

Use your original image.

Comment By James Powell on May 1st, at 8:06 pm
19

I cant get the pie chart indicator to work properly…
I have no idea why though, I’m using the latest version of both leopard and safari.
Any ideas?

By the way, the star wars one is AWESOME!
(you should add some of the emacs games to this list!

Thanks!

Comment By Angus on May 23rd, at 8:20 am
20

i entered some of these cool tweaks. suddenly now, the terminal prompt reads:
LENOVO-EAF02D7C:~ [directory name]$
i never noticed what it read before, but this seems strange??? if anything, at least not lenovo?
who has hacked their way into my mbp, and how can i get rid of this?

Comment By nic on July 5th, at 1:09 am
21

if this doesn’t make the dock 3d ur screwed

defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO; killall Dock

Comment By matt on July 9th, at 2:09 pm
22

These are really cool. I’ve been looking to do something to Safari, namely, disabling its Clear History menu item. Do you know of a way to do this? I’m pretty certain I’ve seen this before, but I can’t figure out how or where.

Comment By Patrick on July 11th, at 11:50 pm
23

@ Patrick. Not off the top of my head. If I find out I will post it up.

Comment By admin on July 12th, at 9:28 am
24

can you make a keyboard command (spacebar) on Finder’s play, rewind, forward, audio preview?

Comment By jonathan on July 18th, at 7:00 am
25

Hey how do i shrink my desktop icons again that would help thanks

Comment By David on July 22nd, at 6:08 am
26

@ David. Use the “Show View Options” on the right hand click menu to change you icon size back to normal.

Comment By admin on July 22nd, at 11:37 am
27

Yo type this in Terminal

emacs

Then press

esc

then press

esc x

at the same time, then type in either , Snake Tetris Pong Life Or doctor

Have fun!

Comment By Mac Rcoker on August 3rd, at 9:54 pm
28

Thanks Matt, that helped… ;-)

Comment By M on August 10th, at 3:33 am
29

Helped Me Big Time, Thanks

Comment By Anmar on August 10th, at 8:10 am
30

How do i change my dock to 3d again

Comment By Joey on August 24th, at 11:06 pm
31

Joey, do the same thing, just change the “YES” to a “NO” in the first line.

And of course ‘killall Dock’ after words to see the results.

Thx

Comment By Anmar on August 25th, at 4:10 am
32

Thanks Anmar for that. Beat me to it.

Comment By admin on August 25th, at 12:03 pm
33

Anytime,

Comment By Anmar on August 25th, at 12:11 pm
34

Hey guys,

I typed in terminal: “defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall” to try it.
I’ve replaced the YES by a NO but it stays the same… help!

Comment By Apple01 on August 25th, at 5:27 pm
35

You need to type “killall” Dock for it to work.

Comment By admin on August 25th, at 5:55 pm
36

how do u restore desktop icons to their original size on a macbook

Comment By will on August 25th, at 11:26 pm
37

Either use the same command with a different size or right click on the desktop and change the size through “Show view Options”. I am use this has been mentioned in the comments before.

Comment By admin on August 26th, at 10:47 am
38

Hi

I am trying to drag a widget to my desktop, but no success. I have a Macbook Pro. F12 is for volume and even if I change it to a normal function key, I cannot get the widget to the desktop. Please help as I think this will be great!

Comment By Piet Nel on September 6th, at 12:56 pm
39

It takes a little bit of a knack to get it right. What I have found is if you click and hold on the widget, drag it around you dashboard. While you are doing this press F12 and it should pop off. Do the same but on your Desktop to get the widget back onto the Dashboard.

I hope this helps.

Comment By admin on September 6th, at 4:26 pm
40

I think your problem is you’re not really using the function you set up for F12 at all because the volume is on top of it by default.
To use the normal F12 button, press and hold ‘fn’ button + F12 at the same time as you’re dragging the widget with your mouse.

One thing I noticed while trying this cool feature, if you have a window open on the desktop, like the finder window, the widget will hide as soon as you use the F12 function in the desktop.
It’ll only show on the dashboard (ironically) but still useless that you can touch it or change anything in it. You can simply remove it when you go to dashboard settings.

So to avoid this, simply make sure your desktop is clear when you use the function and drag any widget into it.

Have Fun

Comment By Anmar on September 6th, at 11:49 pm
41

Thanks Anmar for that comment. Basically there are a millions ways of doing one thing on a Mac. You should have to find the one that works with the least troubles.

Comment By admin on September 7th, at 1:16 am
42

Is The “top” Command Safe?

Comment By macuser on September 8th, at 6:51 pm
43

Yes. It just shows you the running processes on your computer. Similar to Activity Monitor.

Comment By admin on September 8th, at 7:09 pm
44

@#50
To stop it you should use “Ctrl+C” instead of “Cmd+C” to stop it :)

Comment By Christopher Su on September 10th, at 10:22 am
45

is there any way to get rid of the Blue exspose button one?

Comment By Aaron on September 21st, at 8:39 pm
46

Yes, in the command line change YES to NO. Then kill the dock.

Comment By admin on September 21st, at 10:16 pm
47

How do you get rid of step number 4? I cant get it off my screen

Comment By Kyle on September 26th, at 6:36 am
48

@Kyle, change yes to no. Its mentioned in the previous comment if you look.

Comment By admin on September 26th, at 11:36 am
49

Awesome Guide, but for some reason I changed my Login Avatar…
I’m on a school laptop, so I don’t have all my stuff unlocked on System Preferences.
How do I revert this?
(I’m not sure, but it has to do with the one with changing Desktop Picture)

Comment By jT on October 1st, at 2:35 am
50

Also, I can’t get rid of the Develop thing at the top of the Safari Bar.
It says “Debug” on the guide, but here it says Develop.
Thanks!

Comment By jT on October 1st, at 2:36 am
51

Most commands can be reversed by replacing YES with NO. Regarding the desktop picture I have no idea how it has happened. The best bet would be to to redo the command but with a different picture and see if it happens again.

Comment By admin on October 1st, at 3:00 pm
52

Hey
Just wanted to share what i think is a cool thing.
Firstly you need to enable terminal on start-up (system preferences – Accounts -Login Items)

Then open terminal and goto preferences then shell and delete all text and add PS1=”Yes Master? ” ; say Yes Master? (anything in ” ” you can change to your own text)

Basically what this does is makes your computer say yes master every time terminal opens and because it opens on startup it will say as you log in !!!

( the PS1=”Yes Master? ” bit is just cool thing at the side of terminal instead of your present working directory) fun for people who use terminal a lot.

and hey who calls you master everyday?

Hope you like it!

Comment By GG on October 6th, at 8:47 pm
53

A very cool command. Thanks for sharing.

Comment By admin on October 6th, at 8:56 pm
54

you know there is terminal command that lets you select what voice you want to use
here is the code:
say -v fred your text

you can replace fred with any voices that are on your system
here are some voices that come with mac:
Alex, Bruce, Fred, Junior, Ralph, Agnes, Kathy, Princess, Vicki, Victoria
you can see all of them in system preferences speech section.

Comment By august on October 8th, at 12:15 pm
55

Is it possible to make the menu bar purple or blue or green? Is it possible to do something like this to all of the mac programs you have?

Comment By Cmchrono on October 8th, at 11:26 pm
56

I don’t think you can Cmchrono

Comment By admin on October 9th, at 4:31 pm
57

How can I return my 2D dock into the past 3D dock?
:S

Comment By alfonso on October 15th, at 11:11 pm
58

Change YES to NO in the command.

Comment By admin on October 16th, at 5:19 pm
59

I’m trying to find a way to change the sound output device via terminal commands. After much searching I can’t seem to find the commands. Do you know how I can get Terminal to change the sound output in System Preferences > Sound > Output, from say, “Built-In Line Output” to “Built-In Output”?

Thanks, rg

Comment By rg on October 23rd, at 11:40 pm
60

49 should be:
ls -R | grep “:$” | sed -e ’s/:$//’ -e ’s/[^-][^\/]*\//–/g’ -e ’s/^/ /’ -e ’s/-/|/’

’ and ‘ are not the same character and do not function the same way.

Comment By Peter on October 24th, at 6:19 am
61

Wow thanks for all the tips. I cant wait to get home a try them out…

Comment By custom logo designer on October 24th, at 10:42 pm
62

How do you reverse the “Set Screen Saver as Wallpaper” command? This would be a VERY useful thing to know know that I’ve stupidly already done it.

Comment By zebra on October 27th, at 9:14 pm
63

About the “Set Screen Saver as Wallpaper” question… never mind. It resets when you close Terminal. Thanks anyway!

Comment By zebra on October 27th, at 9:17 pm
64

How do make it so you can make it stop pinning the dock?
in the: defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end code

Comment By technogeak on October 30th, at 10:14 pm
65

Just go through System Preferences, any changes you make should reset the preference file.

Comment By admin on October 30th, at 11:15 pm
66

Hi, I just tried the 2D dock change and I am having problems changing it back. Can you give me a hand.! thanks

HC.

Comment By Guambra on November 10th, at 8:23 am
67

Just change yes to no like I have said in the post.

Comment By admin on November 10th, at 8:48 am
68

about the screen saver you can just hit control and C at the same time to turn off screen saver backround

Comment By bob on November 13th, at 10:44 pm
69

So no to be a pain, but what are the exact steps to, for example, enable the “show item path in finder”. I copy and paste the code but it says
“Command not found”
Whats up??

Thanks

Comment By jdool on November 17th, at 4:49 am
70

how do you change the icon size back to normal

Comment By nick on November 18th, at 1:28 pm
71

i used the blue bubble thingy and the 2d dock changer but i cant figur out how to change it back plz reply

Comment By slanky on November 20th, at 4:41 am
72

I want to set the terminal window as my desktop background & make it so I can use it by just minimizing everything else to use it. Any tips there?

Comment By Marque on November 25th, at 8:10 pm
73

the widget on the desktop is great. Is there anyway to make it so that the widget isn’t always on top? It would be great if the widget behaved like a normal window

Comment By chris Maury on November 28th, at 5:52 am
74

“One of may favourite hacks as it lets you see the current path of the Finder window you are in. Its great if you work with a lot of windows.
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES”

the code is incorrect
try
defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -boolean YES

Comment By Anonymous on November 28th, at 7:32 pm
75

hi,im introuble!
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock

i want my glass desk back!
pls help me!
email me pls!

Comment By muktaf on December 15th, at 3:30 pm
76

Um, Well You See, I used the Drag a Widget to Desktop hack and I was just wondering how to undo that hack because Its maknig my widgets act weird and i just want to get it off. Plz help me

Comment By Joseph D on December 20th, at 3:33 am
77

How do I undo the Drag Widget to Desktop hack on terminal. Its messing up my computer.

Much Thanks,
Joseph D

Comment By Joseph D on December 21st, at 4:44 am
78

My God, Sorry, Read previous text, wrote no instead of yes, then restarted my mac then i was ok. thanks for not deleting the previous text or i would be a mess.

Thanks,
Joseph D

Comment By Joseph D on December 21st, at 4:51 am
79

I used the Expose button command with the big blue dot
(defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool YES
killall Dock)

and i would really like to know how to get it off of my desktop, please send the information required.

Thanks,
Jim

Comment By Jim on December 23rd, at 3:58 am
80

Sorry i also forgot to say that I have tried changing the YES to a NO and it wont work

Thanks,
Jim

Comment By Jim on December 23rd, at 4:04 am
81

44) Set The Screen Saver As The Wallpaper – is there a way to hack this code so the screen saver wallpaper will run after terminal is closed?

Comment By DB on December 29th, at 4:48 am
82

is it possible to change the opacity of the gradient of #2 (i.e. make it more transparent)?

Comment By muenster on December 31st, at 1:40 am
83

No it isn’t muenster

Comment By admin on December 31st, at 12:17 pm
84

HOw do you revert number 2) Grdient behind a stack item? I did it, and now my dock has disappeared…..

Comment By Zuhayr AHmed on January 26th, at 8:37 pm
85

Restart your dock. It should be there.

Comment By admin on January 26th, at 9:17 pm
86

i tried 2) and now my dock has disappeared. I do not know what to do. Help please.

Comment By Mike on January 30th, at 2:34 am
87

i tried 2) and now my dock has disappeared. I do not know what to do. Help please..

Comment By Mike on January 30th, at 2:37 am
88

UM I CAN’T GET THE 3D DOCK BACK?!

Comment By Jerry on February 13th, at 2:45 am
89

NEVERMIND I’M AN IDIOT LOL

Comment By Jerry on February 13th, at 2:47 am
90

jerry, you might like to check out secrets (http://secrets.blacktree.com/)

Comment By muenster on February 13th, at 2:55 am
91

I added the bigish blue button to my desktop (#4). How can I remove it?

Comment By Oracle7 on February 15th, at 6:55 pm
92

oracle:

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool NO

and then:

killall Dock

Comment By muenster on February 15th, at 8:54 pm
93

How can i get rid of this!?

4) Add An Exposè Button To The Desktop

Comment By Sean on February 16th, at 8:03 pm
94

How do you create a new terminal window from within terminal ?

Comment By c m b on February 21st, at 1:40 am
95

how to undo this command i.e. what if I want to get rid of it:

4) Add An Exposè Button To The Desktop

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool YES
killall Dock

I am new to the world of terminal little help will be appreciated.

Comment By muktader on February 25th, at 2:46 am
96

How to reverse #4 can anyone please tell me?

Comment By muktader on February 25th, at 2:48 am
97

Anybody looking to reverse a command:

All you have to do is open up terminal, type the command again, and replace TRUE or YES to FALSE or NO (or vice versa). It’s the equivalent of erasing it from the application’s defaults. For example, to show all Finder items you would type

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

and to reverse that default after you are done with the hidden files you type

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder

That’s really all there is to it. Hope I was helpful to some people not well versed in Terminal yet.

Comment By Chris on February 26th, at 12:19 am
98

Thanks Chris for the reply for Q#93

Comment By muktader on February 26th, at 12:55 am
99

Can any one please let me know how to programmatically hide application process from MAC Activity Monitor. I am using MAC Tiger and Leopard – 10.4 and 10.5. I have requirement to hide our application process from Activity Monitor.

Comment By Nirav Dolia on March 4th, at 2:03 pm
100

To keep screensaver background even if you close terminal you can add an & at the end, to run it in the background:

/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app/Contents/MacOS/ScreenSaverEngine -background &

To stop it you’ll have to kill the process:

killall -9 ScreenSaverEngine

Comment By Gregory on March 5th, at 8:55 pm
101

very handy… many thks

noticed an error
to show path in window, you do NOT want a space between “apple.finder” and “_FXShowPosixPathInTitle

it seems to work if you type it as “…apple.finder_FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES”

Comment By Mark W on March 7th, at 6:36 am
102

will these terminal commands work for 10.4? or should it be o.k. because they both use the Bash shell.

cheers

RUFIO

Comment By Rufio on March 11th, at 3:56 pm
103

I did the first trick of making your dock a 2D flat version and I was wondering how to reverse the effects…….
Please Help

Comment By Zack on April 5th, at 4:51 pm
104

Does anyone know if there is a Terminal command to change the address bar default in Safari from “.com” to say “.ch” (Switzerland)..? You know, if you enter a word in the address bar (for example “ford”) Safari will then add “http://www.” and “.com” to find the site. What I want Safari to do is instead of the default “.com” I want it to default to “.ch”.

Comment By paul on April 7th, at 7:28 am
105

Does anyone know if there is a terminal command to make dashboard widgets that you have put on your desktop stay BEHIND all open windows?? because i want to put a stick note pad widget on my desktop, but when I open any application, it goes over top of the app and makes it hard to use. anyone have any suggestions?
thanks

Comment By Connor on April 27th, at 3:17 am
106

How do you turn off the screensaver (number 44) after you enter the command that turns it on.

Comment By Scotty on April 28th, at 9:01 am
107

Some great tips! There are another 40 at: http://www.leftcolumn.net/2009/02/15/40-useful-mac-os-x-shell-scripts-and-terminal-commands/

Comment By Joe on April 29th, at 12:50 am
108

The Star Wars V episode is GREAT!!! Im watching it right now.

Comment By Marco Diaz on April 29th, at 7:58 pm
109

another terminal command/s:

type:
emacs
(return then hold:)
esc x
(then type:)
doctor

Comment By Matthew on May 8th, at 4:40 am
110

others

type “emacs” (without the quotation marks)
hit return
then wait 4 a bunch of typing to come up,
then hold esc and press x then type eather “pong” “snake” or “doctor”

Comment By Black_Raven on May 9th, at 1:33 pm
111

I have a question about the double scroll arrows on both sides:
What do I do if it says “Unexpected argument AppleScrollBarVariant; leaving defaults unchanged.”?
How do I get past this?

Comment By Ed on May 13th, at 9:17 pm
112

Sounds like a syntax error, are you typing it correctly?

Comment By admin on May 13th, at 9:21 pm
113

for #34 (dock pin) replace start w/ end for right pinning

Comment By James Collins on May 19th, at 11:22 pm
114

I remember the “telnet” Star Wars in DOS!

Comment By BrownyTCat on May 27th, at 10:17 pm
115

Zack, replace the YES with NO in the command.

Comment By Jon Brandt on June 6th, at 6:31 pm
116

its

Towel.blinenlights.nl

Comment By philip_lol1 on June 12th, at 9:11 pm
117

i dont understand hack # 50 :s

Comment By Andrew on June 16th, at 10:03 pm
118

Very useful. Running some of these terminal codes have allowed me to make my MacBook Pro faster, more customizable and slightly different than the average Mac user.

I recommend Mac Pilot if you also want to make any finer adjustments.

Another: Fine tune the volume in OS X Leopard: Shift + Option[Alt] + Volume Button

Comment By TsundereWorks on June 21st, at 5:40 am
119

wow that fine tune volume could really come in handy ( NOT being sarcastic)

Comment By Andrew burn on June 21st, at 10:03 pm
120

Hey I was wondering if there where any commands for the installation process as my mac is not recognizing my hard drive anymore. Any help would be very useful. The system just started acting weird not being able to install the system from the dvd rom to the hard drive. Also, are there any commands for disc ejection as the installation disk is now stuck in the macbook as well.

Comment By Mark on June 25th, at 3:57 pm
121

defaults write com.apple.finder DesktopViewOptions -dict IconSize -integer 12 
killall finder

Comment By frederic on July 3rd, at 5:03 pm

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