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What do you use the Terminal for?

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0007776

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Original poster
So for all of you that use Terminal what do you use it for that works better than going through the Finder?
 
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renice +20 [processIDnumber]

Really useful when I'm rendering something and want to make the process run in the background so that I'm not slowed down with other stuff that requires more processor time.
 
mrkramer said:
So for all of you that use Terminal what do you use it for that works better than going through the Finder?
Click to expand...

I run websites, and I use the built-in web server on my Mac plus an install of PHP and MySQL. I edit PHP/HTML from the Terminal, move files around, etc. I FTP to my server using Terminal. And when I intend to install a new web software package (photo gallery, etc) I will try it on my Mac locally first, which involves a lot of unarchiving, chmod'ding, moving files around, etc.
 
I use it to quit the Dock sometimes to get a cool effect when using the genie effect on a window. I also use it to play tetris and mess around with the doctor on it. And I've also used it to delete some invisible files that were locked. I don't use it on a daily basis though.
 
mrkramer said:
So for all of you that use Terminal what do you use it for that works better than going through the Finder?
Click to expand...

The terminal offers a very in depth entrance into the inner workings of the Operating System, and allows you to do certain things that you simply can't do using the GUI.

For instance, I was in a situation where I had to edit the hosts file, and the only way to do this is through the terminal using vim, because you can't see EVERY FILE in the finder.
 
ssh control, dns/httpd.conf and php.ini editing, and the strangely comforting waterfall of ping requests when network testing.

I know how to live.
 
mrkramer said:
So for all of you that use Terminal what do you use it for that works better than going through the Finder?
Click to expand...

File globing when moving files, ssh to hosts for mail, IRC, checking routes, checking DNS, tcpdump, Web browsing...
 
Thanks for the replies, I have been interested in learning how to use it but I wasn't sure what you could do with it that was worth learning how to use it.
 
I didn't go out of my way to ever learn to use it, I just picked it up from playing around on macosxhints.com and reading the man pages when i needed somthing.
 
Launching applications with arguments. Testing programs and games. Visiting the man pages for in-depth reference of the C language. Reindexing spotlight (only once I have done this). Running maintenance scripts. Various other things.
 
Gosh, I do a whole bunch of stuff in the Terminal...

FTP (before I got Transmit)
Shell scripting
Java programming
Managing the built-in Apache web server

Among other things, I have written as shell scripts:
  • Auto-downloaders (with the help of wget)
  • User folder permission fixers
  • Download organizers
  • Music file auto-taggers
 
Mucking around basically... Most recently to set up access control lists for my shared folder (although, then I got Sandbox, so I guess now I can do that graphically).
 
Stinkythe1 said:
For instance, I was in a situation where I had to edit the hosts file, and the only way to do this is through the terminal using vim, because you can't see EVERY FILE in the finder.
Click to expand...
FYI, you can see any non-hidden file (although not actually edit many of the system ones) from TextEdit simply by opening it, type ⌘-o to open a file, typing "/" once the "Open" dialog appears, and entering the path to where you want to go. For example, type "/etc", then choose the hosts file.

Similarly, you can use Finder to "Go to Folder..." to alter the permissions of those non-hidden files.

Of course, Terminal's often ten times better when dealing with system files, but many of them can be accessed without it.
 
jsw said:
FYI, you can see any non-hidden file (although not actually edit many of the system ones) from TextEdit simply by opening it, type ?-o to open a file, typing "/" once the "Open" dialog appears, and entering the path to where you want to go. For example, type "/etc", then choose the hosts file.

Similarly, you can use Finder to "Go to Folder..." to alter the permissions of those non-hidden files.

Of course, Terminal's often ten times better when dealing with system files, but many of them can be accessed without it.
Click to expand...

..... and knowing is half the battle.
 
I came to OS X because (at the time) Linux sucks on notebooks. I needed a good UNIX-like OS that had great notebook support. So I use the terminal for heaps of stuff. A few command line apps that come to mind are vcdgear, vim, top, irssi, wget, nmap, ssh (both client and server), I could go on for ages but that'll do me.

OS X best desktop UNIX-like OS!
 
I use it to change various settings from time to time that are access by an app made in applescript. Easier to access the settings this way rather than through GUI scripting.
 
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