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Replacement For Mac Terminal App Download
The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because you’re used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks — it’s usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, you’ll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once you’ve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Mac’s command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
- What is iTerm2? ITerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.10 or newer. ITerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features you never knew you always wanted.
- Note: For this App Directory entry, we're talking about separate terminal programs, not shells. Windows' Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Cygwin are all different shells that come with their own.
How to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
You’ll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you don’t like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
The free version is very powerful and is a great replacement for Spotlight, but they also offer a pro version called the “Powerpack” that extends the search functionality, integrates into many applications, and even lets you run terminal commands from the main window.
Basic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, it’s worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Let’s try it.
- Type cd ~/Documentsthen and press Return to navigate to your Home folder.
- Type lsthen Return (you type Return after every command).
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder — ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Terminal On Mac
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when you’re typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when you’re copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You can’t use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command that’s already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you don’t specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Here’s another example. This time, we’ll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
- Open a Finder window and navigate to your Documents folder.
- Type cd and drag the Documents folder onto the Terminal window.
- Now, type mkdir 'TerminalTest'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
- cd~/Documents/TerminalTest
- mv TerminalTestFile TerminalTestFile2.rtf
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, you’d keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
mv ~/Documents/TerminalTest TerminalTestFile.rtf ~/Documents/TerminalTest2 TerminalTestFile.rtf
More advanced Terminal commands
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that aren’t accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
- In a Terminal window, type ditto [folder 1] [folder 1] where 'folder 1' is the folder that hosts the files and 'folder 2' is the folder you want to move them to.
- To see the files being copied in the Terminal window, type -v after the command.Apple’s Preview app, preinstalled on every Mac for years, is one of the most underused programs ever. Best mac app for photo editing. Far from being an image preview app, as its name implies, you can use it to convert file formats, grab a frame from a movie, learn the size of a web-based image, sort a folder of images, remove backgrounds, and more.
Download files from the internet
You’ll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
- cd ~/Downloads/
- curl -O [URL of file you want to download]
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved]
- Hit Return
- killall SystemUIServer
- Hit Return
Change the default file type for screenshots
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. To change that to .jpg, do this:
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
- Press Return
- killall SystemUIServer
- Press Return
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' you’d use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesn’t mean you should. It’s a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up space
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, it’s far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space you’ll save. And once you’ve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like it’s difficult to use, it really isn’t. The key is learning a few commands, such as those we’ve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, it’s a powerful tool that has deep access to your Mac’s system files. Check commands by googling them if you’re not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. It’s much safer!
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Mac OS X includes a great terminal editor, but among the handful of alternatives is one that easily rises above them all. iTerm2 is our pick for the best terminal emulator for Mac OS X thanks to its vast number of time-saving features and high level of customizability.
iTerm2
Platform: Mac OS X
Price: Free
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Price: Free
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Features
- Provides a fully-functional command line interface (CLI) for Mac OS X
- Hot key activation, creating a drop-down 'visor' terminal window on command
- Split-pane view for dual terminal sessions
- Search for text in any session
- Autocomplete
- Mouse-less text selection and copying
- Paste history
- Instant Replay allows you to go back in time to review previous activity in your terminal session
- Full screen mode
- Map any key to a function
- Visual style is highly configurable
- Mouse can be used to position the cursor, highlight text, and perform other functions
- Growl support
- Tabs show up as separate windows in Éxpose/Mission Control
- Create specific profiles for separate terminal sessions
- Works in many different languages
Where It Excels
iTerm2 is a modern fork of the great but late iTerm. They are separate apps but operate on the same code base. iTerm2 is just a little more up-to-date. For the most part it'll feel a lot like the Terminal app that comes with Mac OS X, but there are plenty of additional features that make it a better option. The flashiest of these features definitely has to be Instant Replay, which allows you to rewind your terminal session and see what you just did. Autocomplete is also extremely helpful. It's not only good at figuring out what command you might be typing, but it knows what directory you're in and will fill in the names of files as well (if it detects you might be typing one, that is). But iTerm2 is particularly great because of the little things it does. Being able to select and copy text using your keyboard (as opposed to requiring the mouse), map functions to specific keys, and call up a drop-down 'visor' terminal window with a hotkey are all little things that make iTerm2 the best of the bunch.
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Where It Falls Short
There really isn't much to complain about with iTerm2. Personally, I prefer that way the Mac OS X Terminal app handles its visual settings because they're so easy to configure and save, but that's a small gripe. Overall iTerm2 is a pleasure to use.
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The Competition
One obvious runner-up is the built-in Mac OS X Terminal app. On the whole it's pretty great, offering pretty fast operation, plenty of visual customization options (with themes), a tabbed interface, window grouping, and a lot more. It's definitely a strong option and almost the best.
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One feature some feel is missing from the OS X Terminal app is what Visor (Free) provides, and that's a drop-down terminal accessible via hot key. You just press the hot key and the Terminal will appear underneath your menubar, ready for commands. This is very useful for command line enthusiasts and heavy users.
Cathode ($10) may not be a terminal emulator you want to buy, but you definitely need to download it and try it. It emulates an old machine, complete with sound effects and the look of an old CRT monitor. It may not be the most practical option, but it's definitely the coolest. Playing with it for a few minutes will definitely put a nostalgic smile on your face.
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Terminator (Free) is just a simple terminal emulator. It's has nice features like automatic logging, drag and drop paths, and a find function. It's also pretty speedy. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just not as strong of an option. It'll get the job done but won't offer you much beyond its simplicity.
Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.
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