Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

What can you do on the Terminal? Noob Questions!

S

SolidSnak3

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 1, 2011
44
0
Hey Mac-Lords
I ve been a windows peasant for a long time, but i want to learn more about MAC OSX ( own a macbook pro 13inc 2011 with snow leopard)
I would like know what can i do on the terminal, how can i learn commands(list or website ?) etc
Sorry for the trouble and thanks for the help!
 
thanks dude, i was looking for personal experiences with it more than anything.
Like what do you guys use the terminal for etc.
Thanks again!
 
Honestly, if you are not familiar with the terminal, be very carefull!! Many terminal commands can't be undone. You really need to get a book on Linux/unix, something dealing with scripts would probably do you well. To get started, just search the web for "Linux script tutorials", you'll get a bunch of results.
 
Jagardn said:
Honestly, if you are not familiar with the terminal, be very carefull!! Many terminal commands can't be undone. You really need to get a book on Linux/unix, something dealing with scripts would probably do you well. To get started, just search the web for "Linux script tutorials", you'll get a bunch of results.
Click to expand...

I will thanks :)
 
I use terminal to log in to my remote linux boxes to maintain them. There isn't much I need to do on OS X in the terminal. The most recent thing I had to do was to re-enable ftpd (ftp server) which Apple suddenly decided we don't need any more. Well I'm not about to stop using my scan-to-ftp scanner so I went in terminal to get ftpd running again. I realized a lot of users might have this problem so I made an app to enable ftpd. It's on MacUpdate and linked in my sig.

There really is no compelling reason to use the terminal except to learn about Unix. As for books, I would recommend getting used to reading "man pages." A lot of documentation ships with Unix (and by extension OS X). For instance, start by reading up on the bash shell after a google search. You come across a command line app you want to try like grep. You type man grep in terminal and you get the (rather primitive) online help. From there you can search for more on the web. In fact I'd say for learning Unix, the web is more useful than books. But I must remind you: Be careful! The terminal is no place to type things and see what they'll do. If you aren't careful in terminal, you could wipe all your the files in your home folder or render your Mac so it won't boot.

If books work better for you, ORielly is an excellent source. One in particular called Learning the Bash Shell is under $20 at amazon and is even $5 cheaper to read on a kindle or in the kindle app on an iPad or on your Mac.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
r0k said:
I use terminal to log in to my remote linux boxes to maintain them. There isn't much I need to do on OS X in the terminal. The most recent thing I had to do was to re-enable ftpd (ftp server) which Apple suddenly decided we don't need any more. Well I'm not about to stop using my scan-to-ftp scanner so I went in terminal to get ftpd running again. I realized a lot of users might have this problem so I made an app to enable ftpd. It's on MacUpdate and linked in my sig.

There really is no compelling reason to use the terminal except to learn about Unix. As for books, I would recommend getting used to reading "man pages." A lot of documentation ships with Unix (and by extension OS X). For instance, start by reading up on the bash shell after a google search. You come across a command line app you want to try like grep. You type man grep in terminal and you get the (rather primitive) online help. From there you can search for more on the web. In fact I'd say for learning Unix, the web is more useful than books. But I must remind you: Be careful! The terminal is no place to type things and see what they'll do. If you aren't careful in terminal, you could wipe all your the files in your home folder or render your Mac so it won't boot.

If books work better for you, ORielly is an excellent source. One in particular called Learning the Bash Shell is under $20 at amazon and is even $5 cheaper to read on a kindle or in the kindle app on an iPad or on your Mac.
Click to expand...
This WAS VERY HELPFUL thanks dude :)
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
you use terminal to unlock the full unix power of your mac!!!

I got a mac because I love unix, I do a bit of coding and i use terminal for almost all my coding (except gui stuff typically). Use it to modify settings on your mac (for instance hibernate mode, disk spindown, shock sensor, troubleshoot networking issues, modify system files you can't access any other way, run system tasks, open applications, change permissions, remote access files and computers, edit all kinds of settings!!! i love unix)

You can really interact with the operating system using terminal.... think of it as a registry editor in windows + windows power shell on steroids (as one of my coworkers says, he's a network specialist), it even plays some old fashioned games (tetris and the like)

The terminal is a very powerful tool.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back