May 23, 2008 in Popular, UNIX, Open Source, Utilities | 7 Comments
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Until now, I've already collected and posted around 60 Terminal commands that can be used to tweak your Mac preferences; There are :
- Leopard Tweaking - Terminal Codes
- Leopard - Terminal Commands for Desktop
- Leopard Tweaking - Another Terminal Commands
- Change Terminal Focus with Mouse Over
Those are quite difficult to remember. But these next 5 Terminal command utilities must be easy to remember:
5. Calendar
cal Sep 1988
Show you the generated calendar at September 1988. Try playing around with other month and year.
September 1988
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30
4. Software Update
sudo softwareupdate -i -a
This command line helps you install all software updates available on Apple. If you want to install only recommended software updates, you can use:
sudo softwareupdate -i -r
Password: Software Update Tool Copyright 2002-2007 Apple No updates are available.
3. Activity Monitor
top
The returned result is your currently running processes' details. Like shown below.
Processes: 61 total, 3 running, 58 sleeping... 238 threads 21:03:36 Load Avg: 0.45, 0.64, 0.79 CPU usage: 21.50% user, 13.08% sys, 65.42% idle SharedLibs: num = 2, resident = 78M code, 0 data, 5484K linkedit. MemRegions: num = 8388, resident = 339M + 21M private, 171M shared. PhysMem: 174M wired, 624M active, 44M inactive, 842M used, 1197M free. VM: 4496M + 131M 33805(0) pageins, 0(0) pageouts PID COMMAND %CPU TIME #TH #PRTS #MREGS RPRVT RSHRD RSIZE VSIZE 781 top 8.6% 0:01.63 1 18 28 652K 276K 1256K 18M 622 installdb 0.0% 0:00.23 1 34 25 280K 196K 980K 19M 553 top 0.0% 1:14.13 1 16 27 792K 276K 1396K 18M 546 top 0.0% 0:00.34 1 16 27 492K 276K 1096K 18M 502 top 0.0% 0:00.43 1 16 27 496K 276K 1100K 18M 467 Adium 1.1% 0:33.87 4 214 392 8084K 27M 21M 216M 462 Skype 0.1% 0:40.48 19 283 582 92M 24M 89M 384M 454 mdworker 0.0% 0:02.28 4 71 53 1436K 6472K 3744K 33M 282 bash 0.0% 0:00.11 1 14 19 320K 196K 1076K 18M 281 login 0.0% 0:00.03 1 17 49 256K 200K 1024K 19M 257 Terminal 4.1% 0:31.91 4 108 158 2792K 16M 9104K 168M 175 TextEdit 0.0% 1:14.82 7 165 189 2500K 27M 8292K 181M 162 AppleSpell 0.0% 0:04.05 1 52 30 612K 7700K 4684K 34M 157 mysqld 0.0% 0:04.31 9 40 56 10M 200K 13M 45M 138 sh 0.0% 0:00.03 1 14 18 164K 196K 772K 18M 121 Safari 9.2% 11:21.56 10 276- 2228 153M 44M 180M 428M 116 Quicksilve 0.5% 0:55.46 4 113 315 8652K 26M 21M 207M 111 Finder 0.0% 0:47.26 6 215 294 4388K 28M 16M 187M 110 SystemUISe 0.2% 0:27.56 5 244 230 2488K 12M 7568K 159M
2. IP Address
ifconfig | grep inet
Executing this particular command line will return your Mac ip address.
1. Hide Files
chflags hidden ~/Desktop/*
The most useful command line that can be used either to make your Desktop looks clean or to make prank of your friends. With this command, you hide all files in your Desktop folder.
To reveal them again..
chflags nohidden ~/Desktop/*
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7 Comments
MacTipper
Wow! Thanks for the last one. I didn't know about it! Although, I'm wondering, do you need the Dev tools to do this. (I have them, so, I wouldn't know.) Thanks! MacTipper http://www.mactipper.com/
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Wendy <Webmaster>
As far as I know, we only need Leopard installed to use this feature
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Patrix
You can also use 'top -o cpu' to see the process list sorted by CPU usage.
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Malista
thanks for that, but how would you use the cal command to get weeks starting on Monday? cheers,
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Finseth
So, just did the chflags hidden ~/Desktop/* -> returned directory doesn't exist ... so tried without the * at the end, succeeded, now I have a folder on my desktop named Desktop - and I bloody well can't get rid of the bugger again ... Any ideas how to get this one outta there? Kinda wondering because chflags nohidden ~/Desktop/ doesn't work, writing it in, it's executed properly but then the folder is still there :S don't get it ^^
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Manav Fernandez
I recently upgraded to Leapord - while reloading Adium, i seem to have installed a chat preview software that gives me the text of any background chat in both Skype and Adium in the top right corner of my screen BUT i cant seem to get rid of it. HELP!!
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dustin
I just found this thread, tried the hidden Desktop thing and got the same effect...a desktop folder I can't get rid of. Did you ever solve this problem?
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