OS X Command Line Utilities • Hacker News Board

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#11

Post by chimeracoder » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

For Linux users, `xdg-open` is the equivalent of `open`. The latter exists on Linux, but it will open a socket.

There are a number of utilities that handle copy/paste, but `xclip` is probably the most widely used.

Screenshots can also be done a number of ways, but `scrot` is my favorite. The two most useful flags to pass with it are `-s` and `-d`.

As for `launchctl`, `systemctl` is what you want to use to do the same things.

Note that these equivalents all address the same functionality, but the syntax may be different.

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#12

Post by _paulc » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:08 PM UTC

The first of these is easier as:

  open -a Safari

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#13

Post by rattray » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:11 PM UTC

_paulc wrote: post #12

The first of these is easier as: open -a Safari

Agreed, I often use `open -a 'Google Chrome' ./index.html` or `open -a 'Google Chrome' http://0.0.0.0:8000`

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#14

Post by rattray » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:13 PM UTC

scrollaway wrote: post #6

What's with all the buzzfeed-level headlines making HN frontpage the past few days? Not to say this isn't a useful list (for OSX users that is), but I can't possibly be the only one weirded out by this.

I'm assuming the HN post has been changed since your comment (it's now "OS X Command Line Utilities"). What was it before?

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#15

Post by wsc981 » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:14 PM UTC

reuven wrote: post #4

This article was nice, but it indicated that you need to change the system preferences in order to change the voice. It turns out that you can pass the -v flag to use a different voice, or "-v ?" to get a list of names. So you can do say -v Samantha Help, I'm trapped in this castle! or say -v Princess Help, I'm trapped in this castle! But wait, it gets even better: The Mac comes with a number of voices for other lang…

OMG the Dutch voice sounds perfect.

   say -v Xander "Ik houdt van appeltaart met slagroom in Scheveningen op zondag."

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#16

Post by nemild » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:15 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #10

scrollaway wrote: post #6

What's with all the buzzfeed-level headlines making HN frontpage the past few days? Not to say this isn't a useful list (for OSX users that is), but I can't possibly be the only one weirded out by this.

The actual post is fantastic though. There are a million posts that give a one sentence description of the common unix utilities, but very few that actually give examples of when they are the most useful.

Check out http://bropages.org/ and https://github.com/tldr-pages/tldr

Both examples of community driven man pages with examples

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#17

Post by ikurei » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

raldi wrote: post #9

Paging mods for headline change. I suggest, "OS X Command Line Utilities"

I would also change it, but your suggestion doesn't indicate if this is a comprehensive manual or a short introduction, apt for only-midly-technical folks.

I don't know if it would be worth the effort to enforce a more complete set of title guidelines, but having better titles would be nice.

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#18

Post by guan » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

I would add caffeinate, which prevents the Mac from going to sleep. It can do this indefinitely, for a fixed period of time, or after a process is done running. You can even specify that process either as the PID of an existing process or by invoking it through caffeinate itself.

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#19

Post by scrollaway » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:19 PM UTC

rattray wrote: post #14

scrollaway wrote: post #6

What's with all the buzzfeed-level headlines making HN frontpage the past few days? Not to say this isn't a useful list (for OSX users that is), but I can't possibly be the only one weirded out by this.

I'm assuming the HN post has been changed since your comment (it's now "OS X Command Line Utilities"). What was it before?

It was what the article's headline currently is on the site: Eight Terminal Utilities Every OS X Command Line User Should Know

Re: OS X Command Line Utilities

#20

Post by mirkules » Sun, Aug 30, 2015, 2:27 PM UTC

Great list, some really useful commands.

One question: What's wrong with "locate"? It is really fast because the file system contents are indexed. As long as you understand that it's not going to pick up the latest new files without running "updatedb" (sudo/usr/libexec/locate.updatedb" in os x) first, it's much better than find if you're doing a quick search.

However, I didn't know spotlight has a CLI. Cool.