terminal

When you run a script or command in the OS X terminal, it can be useful to have some indication for when it is completed, especially if the script is a lengthy process you might not wish to monitor at all times. Unfortunately when a script or command finishes running, the Terminal will drop you to the command line again, without any notice to you. However, if needed, you can set up the system to run commands so it does offer some notification.

System alerts The first option is to have the terminal invoke the system alert after the command … Read more

OS X applications and services often contain a number of hidden settings that can be used to tweak your Mac's behavior to improve performance or provide an option that is not available by default. To manage these hidden options, you can use the "defaults" terminal command to edit the target preferences file associated with a service and manually adjust a variable's value.

Since the defaults command performs these edits in a single line in the Terminal, it is relatively easy to use and is often suggested as a way to edit property list (plist) files, which … Read more

When connecting to a system remotely using SSH (Secure Shell), usually you provide the SSH command string to log in to the system and then execute commands on the remote system using the current SSH session. This is the standard behavior and is good for performing system management tasks that take more than just a few steps, but sometimes you might only need to log in and run a single specific command or script.

For example, if you would like to check a Mac's process activity by using the "top" command, you would perform the following steps … Read more

Apple's Software Update is a convenient and easy way to keep your Mac up-to-date with the latest security fixes and feature enhancements. To make the service user-friendly, it's been available as a simple graphic-based tool in the Apple menu, but in recent versions of OS X Apple has integrated this service with its Mac App Store. Though it's convenient for most people, if you do not wish to open the Mac App Store for managing updates, there's a way you can avoid it.

Unfortunately there is no known way to revert the Software Update service from … Read more

Memory management in OS X is done primarily by the operating system's virtual memory system; however, there are a few approaches you can take to force the system to clear some aspects of its memory structure and free it up either for troubleshooting purposes or to perhaps help performance.

Part of the memory system in OS X is a cache, where recently used program information is stored so the system can more swiftly launch the program if needed. If you open the Activity Monitor utility in OS X and view the System Memory section, you will see this cache … Read more

The OS X Terminal is a very useful and powerful tool for troubleshooting Mac systems, and in doing so, one of the more common steps in getting a task done is to change directories to target files in it. The contemporary method of doing this is to use the "cd" (change directory) command and then specify a filesystem path; however, this can be a bit frustrating to deal with, especially if you are relatively new to the Terminal and are not too familiar with text-based filesystem browsing.

Given that Apple provides a fairly easy to use filesystem browser … Read more

If you are familiar with the Unix command line, then the OS X Terminal is a great resource for accessing systems remotely. This can be done with several different protocols, including SSH and Telnet, FTP, and SFTP, as well as several others. Often people who use the Terminal for remote access will have several servers they regularly access, which makes typing the commands and URLs to establish the connection rather redundant.

To make this easier, you have several approaches you can take. The first is to set up a script or shell function that will store the connection information for … Read more

What happens when you sign a two-year contract with a carrier and you soon discover that network is painfully slow?

Unfortunately, you may be stuck with that service. In this edition of Ask Maggie, I offer some advice on what one Sprint customer can do to get out of his contract without paying a hefty early termination fee. I also offer some information on the new Sprint 4G LTE deployment in Atlanta.

Breaking up with Sprint

Dear Maggie, I have a family plan with Sprint. I have an iPhone 4S and three iPhone 4's on Sprint. We love the … Read more

While the OS X Terminal is not a familiar operating environment for most Mac users, those who have had experience with Unix-based systems will find it to be an invaluable tool for managing their systems. One of the most common uses of the Terminal is to establish a remote log-in session on a system using the secure shell (SSH) command, and sometimes invoke multiple connections to the same system and different systems at the same time.

As a result of this, you might find you have many windows open at once to manage these connections in, though starting with Snow … Read more