Some Simple OS X Command Line Tools for Everyone

Some Simple OS X Command Line Tools For Everyone

These were gathered from around the internet and from my personal knowledge. Many are simple tools that one can read about in the MAN pages, a couple are shell items that you can create on the fly. Enjoy.

This first one is a simple tree structure directory listing. First go to the command line on your mac by opening the terminal app.

at the prompt cd to home if you are not there.

$ cd ~

Next lets edit your .profile which is basically your shell control panel. We are going to create an alias.

$ vi .profile

This will put you into the editor you ‘i’ to start inserting. Most of you will have a blank file, some of you might already have items in here.

In your file put the following.

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

Hit escape, hit wq at the : to write.

Now lets source the .profile to read in the alias.

$ source .profile

Now you can type the command and see the tree output.

$ dirtree

|---------------colorpicker

|-------------js

|---------------shortcode-generator

|-----------------js

|-----------------shortcodes

|-----------images

|-----------includes

|-------------js

|-----------lang

|-----------psd

|—————styles

It gives you an easier to read directory structure.

This next one I use quite frequently, it allows one to copy information to and from your clipboard. These are simple command line tools and you can MAN page them for more information.

<——>

PBCOPY & PBPASTE

$ ls -al | pbcopy

Will copy the directory listing to the clipboard.

$ pbpaste >> filename.txt

Will now paste the directory listing from the clipboard to a filename.txt file.

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DISKUTIL

Most of you know you can access diskt utility form the applications area, but did you know you can perform the same functions from the command line.

$ diskutil

Will show you the full list of options and of course read the MAN pages before you go messing with your disks.

A quick example I found is over at http://www.ernieflores.net

Deleting and merging a partition with diskutil from the command line

Launch the Terminal and type the following into the command line:

$ diskutil list

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *120.0 GB disk0

1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1

2: Apple_HFS Lion 119.2 GB disk0s2

3: Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB disk0s3

Look for the identifier for the partition you do not want. We are going to use disk0s3.

To remove that partition type.

$ diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ Blank /dev/disk0s3

The partition will be erased.

$ diskutil mergePartitions HFS+ Lion disk0s2 disk0s3

This will merge the two partitions.

<——>

This next two are fun to play with but not much more.

BANNER

This will print a ascii text banner of whatever input one gives it.

$ banner -w 30 joe

#

###

################### ##

################## ###

####

#########

## ##

# #

# ##

## ##

#########

####

####

#########

## # ##

# # #

# # ##

# # ###

# #####

You can also pipe this to the printer.

$ banner -w 20 JERRY > jerry | lp -d "_132_235_132_250" jerry

This will send banner the word jerry at 20 width, put it into a file, then print the file.

You can get a list of printers with

$ lpstat -a

and

$ lp -d “printername” file

prints from the command line.

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SAY

Say will make your computer say some text string. It is great for playing with and having fun with your friends.

$ say hi

Will make your Mac say the word “Hi”.

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The last one is very powerful and allows you to do many things on your Mac from the command line.

SYSTEMSETUP

$ sudo systemsetup

will get you there. Some of the options you can try are

Usage: systemsetup -setrestartfreeze

Set restart on freeze to either or .

Usage: systemsetup -getallowpowerbuttontosleepcomputer

Display whether the power button is able to sleep the computer.

Usage: systemsetup -setallowpowerbuttontosleepcomputer

Enable or disable whether the power button can sleep the computer.

Usage: systemsetup -getremotelogin

Display whether remote login is on or off.

Type -help in systemsetup to see all of your options. Sometimes this is a quick way to set something when you are a heavy command line worker.

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These are just a few of the tools you can use, there are 1000’s more but I wanted to show you a few that I use to get things done.

Enjoy

Joe Murphy

AKA Grehyton