Do you ever use the terminal?

[Luigi239]

I was just thinking about this, but does anybody here use the terminal? I use it when I want to do system maintenance, and sometimes to work my way around hidden files in the file system to just get used to unix commands. Now that I know how to use it, I find that the command line can be very powerful, but you can also screw stuff up real quickly. :P

[bld44]

I use Terminal for a lot of our server management (SSH). Other then that, no.

[MK2007]

I use Terminal every day for a variety of things. Being able to have a UNIX command line is one of the most important reasons I use Macs.

[TimJim]

no not really

[Eidorian]

1. iTerm (http://iterm.sourceforge.net/)
2. I live and die by terminals

[solaris]

Yes, I use Terminal a lot (20+ times a day).
* Check out source code from svn and cvs servers.
* Compile source code.
* Rename files.
* Run a wide range of command line applications.

[ab2650]

I was just thinking about this, but does anybody here use the terminal? I use it when I want to do system maintenance, and sometimes to work my way around hidden files in the file system to just get used to unix commands. Now that I know how to use it, I find that the command line can be very powerful, but you can also screw stuff up real quickly. :P

I almost always have a terminal window open, and if not, it's still earned itself a permanent place on my dock. But I come from a *nix background and feel at home with a good old command line interface.

But you're also right; You can screw things up pretty badly and pretty quickly if you don't know what you're doing. I urge you to read a good book on using the CLI before doing anything drastic.

Aside from my routine stuff (mostly ssh and remote control of various servers) I have two 'fun' uses in the terminal. First is the "say" command, invoking text-to-speech. Good for a chuckle, but loses it's charm fast. The second is the "open" command which for all intents and purposes is like a double click; Launches an app, opens a folder, opens a document with the associated app. The nifty thing is you can have a .hidden folder on your desktop or home directory. Can't see it with the GUI but you can launch terminal, type "open .hidden_folder" and the GUI pops it up. Um, that is, if you have anything to, ahem, hide. ;)

[miniConvert]

I never use my Mac's without using Terminal. OS X is beautiful and functional, but Terminal is one of the key things that allowed me to switch and then switch my company.

[skunk]

What's the Terminal?

[John Jacob]

Just about all the time.

[Osarkon]

Comes in useful every now and again when I ssh/telnet into University.

And of course, emacs! Hooray for Tetris! :D

[psychofreak]

When Smackbook was released, it needed Terminal so I used it for that. Afterwards, I've done a few force-empty-trash's but thats it...

[furious]

never have had to never will need to.

[Queso]

All the time. I do a lot of Cisco configuration and UNIX admin over SSH, so I'm just in the habit of typing stuff in rather than using the mouse.

[psychofreak]

Thanks to Quicksilver, I can do stuff in the GUI without touching the mouse or Terminal :)

[angelwatt]

I use Terminal about on a weekly basis, at least often enough to have a place on my dock. Also, for people who use a lot of the same terminal commands you should really check out CLIX (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/clix.html). I use terminal for various things like using rsync to keep backups and xsltproc for my XML transformations.

[dr_lha]

I hardly every use the actual "Terminal.app" program, but I use X11 constantly and xterms within that. All the software I use for work (barring Office) is Unix based, so its all X11 stuff.

[jczubach]

Terrifies me! So much damage, so little time:eek: And what is this this Automator they speak of????:confused:

[-::ubermann::-]

i use it to work on files that are not in my home folder and changing permissions mainly
again, whats the keyboard shortcut to open it?

[invasian]

i only use it for specific tasks that pop up every now and then.

for example, iuse it as a permanent delete of files that i don't want residing in the trash can...or to delete individual files from the trash can...

have also used it to create a custom icon for my windows partition...

used it to show hidden files and to force quit services so that i can unmount my external hard drive...

[mrkramer]

I use it occasionally I just used it to force delete a file that would not delete any other way.

[mward333]

I use the terminal every day, for a variety of UNIX commands, and also for accessing other machines in our department. (I program a lot.)

Having a terminal allows me to treat my Mac a lot like a UNIX machine (with a ton of extras, of course!).

[-kritter-]

First used the terminal to install ipod linux on my 5.5G, it fascinated me so i eventually got a "learn UNIX now" book and further developed my knowledge of it just for the heck of it... dont really use it for much though....

[mward333]

I should clarify that I actually use X11 much more than I use the plain Terminal application. Having X11 allows me to, for instance, ssh to another machine in our department and then open Emacs in its own window. It is possible to do almost anything in Emacs.

[zephead]

I usually just use the Terminal for sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3 (or 0). I put it on 3 for being on the road and not wanting my open stuff lost if the battery dies, but if I'm plugged into anywhere (i.e. home) I put it on 0 for fast sleep.

[PYR0M310N]

for use of ssh

[yetanotherdave]

lots. Mostly file manipulation and also killing off crashed programs.

[jonnylink]

Yeah, I love terminal. It lets me do all sorts of neat tricks that I wouldn't be able to do easily otherwise.

I use it a lot of file, application, and server management, but I also have a bunch of scripts to do things like maintenance, backups, and tweaks.

For instance a new terminal command I found to improve mail's performance if it is getting sluggish is (quit mail.app first)
sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;

I find that a lot of crappy shareware programs are built around simple things you can do in the terminal. You don't have to be an expert or a computer guru to get some of the benefits of a few good terminal commands.

[EricBrian]

That is one of the major reasons why I got a mac.