macOS Terminal Question?

[Chef Medeski]

I am trying to make the desicion whether or not to get a linux computer. The thing that worrys me the most isn't instability or incompatibility (I bought a mac for those), but the command line. I'm quite shy of thing. I have dabbled in Mac's Terminal program and upon reading up I noticed that Linux is akwardly close to Mac OS X. I just wanted to know what the differences would be between the two. I mean if I could practice on my mac to determine whether I could use a linux, that would just be great. I guess since they are both built on UNIX, they share a great deal; however, I wanted to know what commands and aspects differ?

 

[Doctor Q]

If you are a beginner in Terminal, the differences might not be important to you yet. We could recommend to you some reading material to get started learning about Terminal in Mac OS X or about using the command line in Linux in general, but what's more important for now might depend on what specifically you want to do, e.g., move files around, use particular utilities, write your own scripts, install software packages, use a compiler, interface with a GUI environment, etc.

For what purpose(s) would you use the command line?

 

[Chef Medeski]

Well I really don't care so much for Terminal in Mac, Apple already does the job for me using Aqua. I was more dabbling for Linux which I am installing soon. I am using it as a server. So, thats all I wanted to use it for and I guess just wanted to know if what I learned with Linux would be double as helpful in a mac.

 

[Doctor Q]

Well I really don't care so much for Terminal in Mac, Apple already does the job for me using Aqua. I was more dabbling for Linux which I am installing soon. I am using it as a server. So, thats all I wanted to use it for and I guess just wanted to know if what I learned with Linux would be double as helpful in a mac.

For the most part, yes. Many of the commands, files, and software packages you might encounter on your Linux server will be exactly the same under Mac OS X.

 

[greatdevourer]

I am trying to make the desicion whether or not to get a linux computer. The thing that worrys me the most isn't instability or incompatibility (I bought a mac for those), but the command line. I'm quite shy of thing. I have dabbled in Mac's Terminal program and upon reading up I noticed that Linux is akwardly close to Mac OS X. I just wanted to know what the differences would be between the two. I mean if I could practice on my mac to determine whether I could use a linux, that would just be great. I guess since they are both built on UNIX, they share a great deal; however, I wanted to know what commands and aspects differ?

1) What is it with people and putting Terminal in Programming?
2) Unless you start going into shellcode/assembly programming or kernel programming, you won't notice a single thing

 

[EricNau]

I wish I knew how to use the Terminal.

 

[MacsRgr8]

http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/

 

[jhu]

http://www.osxfaq.com/Tutorials/LearningCenter/

that was actually a good tutorial. even i learned something

 

[slooksterPSV]

Here I'll throw on some safe commands for you to try out:
open ./ opens current directory
cd / changes current directory to / (the root of the hard drive)
echo "whatever you want to type in here" outputs the txt in between the quotes, in this instance it would output: whatever you want to type in here
exit quits current terminal shell
ls lists contents in current directory unless otherwise specificed, e.g.: ls ~/Desktop will list everything in the desktop
help shows a list of commands
top shows current processes

---ADVANCED COMMANDS---
Some of these can/may/will hurt the OS so use them cautiously:
chmod change modification rights on a file or folder
chown change owner of a file or folder
env shows environment variables, you can also change them too
set shows all set variables, you can also change them too
rm removes specific file or folder use -R to do it recursively
cp copies files to another file name or specific place e.g.: cp ~/Desktop ~/
rmdir removes a directory specifically

---USEFUL COMMANDS---
kill program# allows you to kill/force quit tasks
killall program name allows you to kill a program by typing its program name in
--Both kill and killall, use top to find out what you want to kill.

There's sooooooo.................oooo much more, but there's some basics. Echo is fun.

 

[superbovine]

1) What is it with people and putting Terminal in Programming?
2) Unless you start going into shellcode/assembly programming or kernel programming, you won't notice a single thing

I fix permission, backup my HD over the network using rsync in one foul swoop.

You could also use crond to schedule different program to run at specific times which might be a better solution depending on the application instead of using ical.

I also use telnet, ssh, ftp, and scp quite frequently to remote admin my linux servers.

In other words, the shell, "terminal", is quite powerful if you know how to use it, but for most user it is too complex to understand what the capabilities are.

 

[ll350]

Here something that might help:

I've been browsing "Unix for the Beginning Mage" It's a book, but you can also download a pdf here:

http://unixmages.com/books

Basically it explains and shows you how to use the terminal to do things, and IMHO does a good job of explaining things for beginners

They do an clear presentation of the things they cover, although I'm a CLI n00b and haven't finished it yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt.