Do you know how to use Terminal ?

[1member1]

Just wondering. Most people say mac users don't know how to use it or why they need it.

There's nothing bad about it but it still intresting for me.


Wish i knew how to post pool instead

 

[mrapplegate]

Just wondering. Most people say mac users don't know how to use it or why they need it.

There's nothing bad about it but it still intresting for me.


Wish i knew how to post pool instead

Yes, I do know how to use Terminal.
At the bottom of Post a New Thread there is the option for a Poll not a wet pool

 

[sensorian]

No,

No but then again I don't know how to change the timing belt on my car either but it still works ok.....

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

I live in terminal. I write scripts and manage Macs for a living.

 

[old-wiz]

Before I retired I worked with various forms of *NIX, and before that in Multics, so I am very comfortable with terminal. However, I usually avoid it now. When I worked in *NIX, I was involved in the system code that interfaced between "terminal" and the OS itself.

I can remember setting up extremely contorted shell scripts which could be a pain to debug.

 

[peeaanuut]

I know how to use it but find I rarely ever need to use it. I have a friend that is always in it doing tasks that he could do otherwise because he thinks it makes him look all techy like. But he also just started watching Dr. Who because thats what the cool kids do.

the necessity of a user also being a coder is over.

 

[Risco]

I don't have the first clue about terminal, but that is because I only recently converted to Mac after being a 25 year windows user.

 

[old-wiz]

I don't have the first clue about terminal, but that is because I only recently converted to Mac after being a 25 year windows user.

One big problem with terminal is that it is very easy to make an awful mess and render your Mac unbootable.

 

[mfram]

Very easy? Hardly. You'd have to use 'sudo' to delete anything that would keep your machine from booting. If you blindly type in commands others tell you, then you certainly can mess up the system. Never use 'sudo' and you won't completely mess up your Mac. You could certainly delete your own files, however. There's no trashcan when you use 'rm'.

Mac OS Terminal uses the "bash" shell just like many other Unix systems. Underneath that Mac clothing lies a real Unix system. The details are a little different than BSD or Linux, but most of it is still the same.

Buy a book on bash shell programming if you want to learn more about the shell used in the Terminal.

I'm very comfortable with the Terminal shell having used and administered Unix and Linux systems for 20 years. If you want to learn some scripting, it's all there. python, perl, and bash scripting are all ready to go. If you use something like MacPorts you can bring over other Unix open-source software that's not already installed. If you install XCode, you'll get a C/C++/Objective-C compiler as well.

 

[mobilehaathi]

I use terminal everyday....

 

[slrandall]

Sure; Terminal is handy for all sorts of stuff.

For someone just getting into it, just try navigating around and inspecting your system with the "cd" and "ls" commands. Try out editors like vi and emacs; try the interactive Ruby or Python shells; try writing simple bash scripts.

There's also a number of "easter eggs" that can be found with the Terminal, like:

- Type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" to watch ASCII Star Wars
- Type "emacs", then Escape+x, and then "tetris"

As an aside, one of the most horrible pranks I've ever seen played on someone was recommending that they type in "sudo rm -rf /" into Terminal, followed by their password. This command is granted full administrative power ("sudo") and deletes ("rm") everything starting at the root directory ("/") recursively (meaning it deletes subfolders too) and without any prompting ("-rf"). Essentially, it wipes the entire drive. Haha, right?

Let this be a lesson to all Terminal newcomers: BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT ANY COMMANDS YOU TYPE INTO TERMINAL IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

 

[Watabou]

Yep, I use terminal everyday. I never close it either. I just open a tmux session and I do my programming in the terminal with vim. It's just so much faster.

 

[throttlemeister]

The fact that OS X is a UNIX system and it has a UNIX terminal was the prime reason for me to switch to a Mac in the first place. I can't function without the terminal.

 

[dontpannic]

Sure; Terminal is handy for all sorts of stuff.

For someone just getting into it, just try navigating around and inspecting your system with the "cd" and "ls" commands. Try out editors like vi and emacs; try the interactive Ruby or Python shells; try writing simple bash scripts.

There's also a number of "easter eggs" that can be found with the Terminal, like:

- Type "telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl" to watch ASCII Star Wars
- Type "emacs", then Escape+x, and then "tetris"

As an aside, one of the most horrible pranks I've ever seen played on someone was recommending that they type in "sudo rm -rf /" into Terminal, followed by their password. This command is granted full administrative power ("sudo") and deletes ("rm") everything starting at the root directory ("/") recursively (meaning it deletes subfolders too) and without any prompting ("-rf"). Essentially, it wipes the entire drive. Haha, right?

Let this be a lesson to all Terminal newcomers: BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL ABOUT ANY COMMANDS YOU TYPE INTO TERMINAL IF YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

That rm -rf does work. I tried it on a working Mountain Lion beta install before I installed the final version. You would have thought there would be some kind of thing in place to stop you doing it! lol