This document provides an overview of Unix commands for Mac OSX. It begins with a brief history of the Mac operating system and its Unix origins. It then covers various types of commands including file/folder management, system administration, networking, text editing/manipulation, and more. Specific commands like ls, cd, grep, find, ifconfig, and curl are described along with examples. Pipes, redirection, and different shells (bash, zsh, tcsh) are also outlined. The document concludes by mentioning additional topics that could be covered at higher levels, like scripting and developer commands.

1. Terminal 101
Unix Commands for Mac OSX

2. History of the Mac
●
Unix Based (Free BSD / AT&T 6th
Edition Unix)
●
Kernel called Darwin (open sourced)
●
Xnu – Developed by NeXT later bought by
Apple (Tim invented the internet on NeXT, while at CERN. So
the internet was created on the MAC...)
●
uname -a (to see the version)
●
Basically they got Mach Kernel (Carnegie Mellon University) and
built new drivers using the Objective C apis.

3. Finding Help
●
man --help , xman (if you have X11 or XQuartz),
whatis, info
●
Developer.apple.com
●
Macrumors.com (Forums)
●
Lifehacker.com
●
Ss64.com/osx
●
Mac OSX Unix Toolbox (Book)

4. Types of Commands
●
Core or Default Set
●
File or Folder Management
●
System Administration
●
Networking, Email & Internet
●
Text, Editors and Manipulation
●
Pipes, Redirection and scripting
●
Developer Commands

5. Types of Shells
●
bash – Bourne Again 1989 (Default)
●
zsh – Z Shell 1990
●
tcsh – C Shell 1978
●
sh – Bourne Shell 1977
●
Korn Shell 1983
●
Thompson Shell 1971
●
echo $SHELL ; chsh -s /bin/zsh

6. for version in "${maya_versions[@]}";
do
echo -n "Checking for ..... Maya $version";
maya_script_dir="$HOME/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/$version-x64/scripts";
# echo $maya_script_dir
if [ -w "$maya_script_dir" ];
then
echo " ... Yes Found!";
echo "... $maya_script_dir";
echo -n "... Checking for existing files ...";
if [ -f "$maya_script_dir/mkUtils.pyc" ];
then
echo " Yes Found!";
echo "... $maya_script_dir/mkUtils.pyc";
mv "$maya_script_dir/mkUtils.pyc" ~/.Trash/;
echo "... mkUtils.pyc moved to Trash!"
else
echo " Not Found!";
fi
cp ./mkUtils.py $maya_script_dir
echo "... Installed mkUtils.py"
else
echo " ... Not found!";
fi
done
Lets get started...

7. Navigating...
●
ls - List
●
pwd – print working directory
●
cd – change directory
●
clear – Clear Screen
●
./ - current directory
●
../ - parent directory
●
~ - user home directory
●
- - last path
Example...
$ cd ~
$ ls -a
$ ls -l
$ ls -R
$ ls -lh
$ cd ../Shared/
$ pwd

8. File and Folder Management
●
touch – create new file
●
cp – copy
●
mv – move / rename
●
rm – remove
●
mkdir – create new
directory
●
rmdir – remove directory
(empty only)
Example
$ cd ~/Desktop
$ mkdir -p Test/First
$ touch ./Test/First/newFile.txt
●
$ cd Test/First
●
$ ls
●
$ cp newFile.txt ../secondFile.txt
●
$ rm newFile.txt
●
$ cd ..
●
$ rmdir First/
●
$ cd ..
●
$ rm -r Test/

9. System Administration 1
●
top – currently running
processes
●
ps – process status
●
kill – stop running process
●
open – open files and
directories
●
pgrep – find process by name
●
installer – install mac
packages
●
softwareupdate – mac updates
●
df – display free disk space
●
du – display disk usage
●
diskutil – mac disk utils
Example
$ open -a firefox
$ ps -ax
$ pgrep firefox
$ kill 905
$ df -h
$ du -h
$ installer -pkg
Package.pkg /
$ softwareupdate --list

10. Permissions, Groups & Users
●
chown – change ownership
●
chmod – change access
permission
●
dscl – directory service
command line (create,
modify users and groups)
●
Example
$ chmod u+x
$ chown kumar file.txt
drwx------+
Directory File Link | User Read Write Execute Group Read Write Execute Other Read Write Execute

11. Viewing Text (Logs)
●
cat – concatenate
●
less – view less
●
more – view more
●
head – view head
●
tail – view tail
●
syslog – view
system.log
Examples
$ cat /var/log/system.log
$ less /var/log/system.log
$ more /var/log/system.log
$ head /var/log/system.log
$ tail /var/log/system.log
$ ls ~/Library/Logs/
$ ls /var/log

12. Selecting Searching Sorting
●
grep – text pattern search
●
find – path file search
●
locate – indexed search,
disabled by default
●
mdfind – Spotlight cli
●
sort – sort text
●
uniq – find duplicates
Examples
$ grep AppleTalk /etc/services
$ find /Volumes/Data/Magazine/ -iname "*mac*"
$ mdfind -name TextEdit
$ mdfind -onlyin ~/Desktop/ Artist
$ ls -l | sort -fi
$ sort sortingTest.txt
$ sort sortingTest.txt | uniq

13. Manipulating Text
●
awk - pattern-directed scanning
and processing language
●
sed - stream editor language
●
vim - Vi IMproved, a programmers
text editor
●
emacs - GNU project Emacs
●
nano - Nano's ANOther editor, an
enhanced free Pico clone
●
pico – pine package text editor
Vim - : , i , :wq , :help, :x
CTRL-] to jump to a subject under the cursor.
CTRL-O to jump back (repeat to go further
back).
Emacs – Control + x followed by Control + c (to
quit)
^ means Control
●
ls -l | awk '{print $3}'
●
echo Hi there how are you? |
sed s/you/me/
●
$ ls -l | sed
s/staff/Kumaran/
●
emacs
●
Esc + x
●
tetris

14. Pipes and Redirection
●
| - pipe or pass
●
> - redirect output
●
>> - Append
●
< - Read input
●
curl -s http://www.angeltv.org | grep Description |
awk -F = '{print $3}' | sed 's/>//'
●
cat /usr/share/dict/words | grep -E '(Aaron|Moses)'
●
echo "Hi there how are you" >> test.txt
●
tr "[:lower:]" "[:upper:]" < test.txt
●
ifconfig | grep broadcast | ping -c 3 “$(awk
'{print $6}')” | grep 'bytes from' | awk '{print
$4}' | sort | unique

15. Networking 1
●
ifconfig – network card
configuration
●
ipconfig - view and
control IP
●
traceroute - print the
route packets take to
network host
●
nslookup - query Internet
name servers
●
ping - check a remote host
for reachability
●
telnet - TELNET protocol
Examples
$ ping -c 3 www.google.com
$ ping -i 60 182.19.95.34
$ ping -S 192.168.1.73
192.168.1.1
$ ipconfig getifaddr en0
$ nslookup openmail.angeltv.org
$ telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

16. Networking 2
Examples
# Get ip address
$ ipconfig getifaddr en1
# Enable Network Interface
$ ifconfig en1 up
# Disable Network Interface
$ ifconfig en1 down
# Set ip address
$ ifconfig en1 inet 192.168.2.1
# Set netmask
$ ifconfig en1 netmask
255.255.255.0
Examples
# Change MTU
$ ifconfig en1 mtu 1000
networksetup -listallnetworkservices
networksetup -getdnsservers Wi-Fi
networksetup -setmanual Wi-Fi
10.0.0.2 255.255.255.0 10.0.0.1
netstat -nr # routing tables
netstat -at # all sockets
lsof -n -i4TCP # ports binary
iostat -d disk0 # disk stats
dscacheutil -flushcache # 10.5-6
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
arp -ad # Flush arp cache

17. Internet
●
mail
●
sendmail
●
curl - transfer a
URL
●
wget – Need to
install (Popular)
●
ftp - Internet file
transfer program
$ curl -s http://www.angeltv.org
$ curl
http://edge.sin1.swiftserve.com/ange
ltv/angeltvlfd/downloads/GOTK_Englis
h_Ver4.pdf -O
$ curl -u user:pass -O
ftp://.../file.zip
$ echo “Hi how are you?” | mail -s
“From Mac” kumar@angeltv.org
$ printf “Subject: Hi how are you?”
| sendmail -f kumar@angeltv.org
kumar@angeltv.org

18. Misc... Stuff
●
date – Date and Time
●
time – time processes
●
cal – calender
●
dc – desktop calculator
●
GetFileInfo - HFS+
●
history – command history
●
pbcopy – clipboard copy
●
pbpaste – clipboard paste
●
zip – PKZip zip
●
unzip – PKZip unzip
●
shutdown
●
who, whoami, hostname,
finger
●
wc – word/line count
●
say – speak
●
caffeinate – prevent
sleep
●
yes – stress test
●
md5, shasum – file hash
●
alias, unalias, ln

19. Closing Thoughts...
There are many more commands, too much to cover in one sitting.
If needed we could do a 202 level course and cover more
advanced stuff.
Example : remote connection to another system, transferring files, mounting and
partitioning raids, scheduling commands to run at a specific date and time and
further automation.
If needed, we could do a 303 level course and cover bash scripting
and other such workflows.
A 404 level course will be the highest, where we go into the
developer commands, like make and git.
But we should consider, moving on to python, ruby or other such
scripting languages to better automate things and build better
applications. Mac has python and ruby already inside it...

20. Thank you,
The end...By : Kumar (kumar@angeltv.org)