macOS X

Showing hidden files in Mac OS #

Just do 'Command' + 'Shift' + '.'

Or, to make it permantently:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles true
killall Finder # restart Finder

Switching between different installed Java versions in macOS X #

Once you have several java versions installed, you can configure your .bash_profile to have the following lines:

alias j19="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 19`;  java -version"
alias j17="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 17`;  java -version"
alias j16="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 16`;  java -version"
alias j12="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 12`;  java -version"
alias j11="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 11`;  java -version"
alias j10="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 10`;  java -version"
alias j9="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home  -v 9`;   java -version"
alias j8="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home  -v 1.8`; java -version"
alias j7="export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home  -v 1.7`; java -version"

Or, in case your user does not have many permissions or/and have used homebrew:

alias j8='export  JAVA_HOME="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@8/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home"; java -version'
alias j11='export JAVA_HOME="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@11/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home"; java --version'
alias j17='export JAVA_HOME="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@17/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home"; java --version'
alias j18='export JAVA_HOME="/opt/homebrew/opt/openjdk@18/libexec/openjdk.jdk/Contents/Home"; java --version'

Generating self-signed SSL certificates to be used in Nginx #

The same command works on Linux.

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 36500 -newkey rsa:2048  \ 
  -keyout private-selfsigned.key -out public-selfsigned.crt

Discover the IPs that are being resolved for a domain #

nslookup google.se

Creating a brew PR to upgrade a version #

Let’s take Opera as an example. The Opera’s tap is here.

To upgrade brew casks:

brew bump-cask-pr opera --version 77.0.4054.276

And for regular formulas:

brew bump-formula-pr  ...

Creating permanent aliases #

Create a file like ~/.zsh_aliases

cd; touch .zsh_aliases

Add alias on it;

echo "myalias=\"ls\"" >> .zsh_aliases

Reference the alias in your bash profile by adding the follow lines.

if [ -f ~/.zsh_aliases ]; then
. ~/.zsh_aliases
else 
  touch .zsh_aliases;
  echo echo "myalias=\"ls\"" >> .zsh_aliases;
fi

Oh My Zsh #

Show date time in the right side of the window

RPROMPT='%{$fg_bold[blue]%} %D %T % %{$reset_color%}'

Advanced macOS Command-Line Tools #

caffeinate - set Mac sleep behavior #

Running caffeinate with no flags or arguments prevents your Mac from going to sleep as long as the command continues to run.

caffeinate -u -t prevents sleep for the specified number of seconds.

Adding the -d flag also prevents the display from going to sleep.

Specifying an existing process with -w automatically exits the caffeinate command once the specified process exits.

Passing a command with caffeinate starts the given command in a new process and prevents sleep until that process exits.

networkQuality #

Run networkQuality to run an Internet speed test from your Mac.

Add the -v flag to view more detailed information.

Use the -I flag to run the network test on a specific network interface.

open - open files and applications #

open -a opens the given file with the specified application.

Add the -g flag to open the file in the background, without losing focus from the current application.

open . opens the current directory in a new Finder window.

open -R reveals the given file in a new Finder window.

textutil - document file converter #

textutil can convert files to and from Microsoft Word, plain text, rich text, and HTML formats.

textutil -convert html journal.doc converts journal.doc into journal.html.

The possible values for -convert are: txt, html, rtf, rtfd, doc, docx.

say - text-to-speech engine #

say announces the given message.

say -f input.txt -o output.aiff creates an audiobook from the given text file.

softwareupdate - manage OS updates #

softwareupdate –list prints out available software updates.

sudo softwareupdate -ia installs all available updates.

softwareupdate –fetch-full-installer –full-installer-version tries to download the full installer of the specified macOS version to /Applications.

system_profiler - view system information #

system_profiler by default prints all available system information, which is usually overwhelming.

system_profiler only prints information about the given sub-system.

system_profiler -listDataTypes lists all available sub-systems to get information from.

Some particularly useful ones:

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType prints an overview of the hardware of the current machine, including its model name and serial number.

system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType prints an overview of the software of the current machine, including the exact macOS version number.

system_profiler SPPowerDataType prints power and battery information, including the current AC wattage and battery cycle count.

system_profiler SPDeveloperToolsDataType prints the currently active version of the Xcode developer tools and SDK.

macOS Tricks #

General #

UI conventions #

  • Hold the Option key while expanding an outline view to recursively expand all children. (The easiest place to test this is in Finder’s List view.)
  • By default, clicking inside a scroll bar will scroll partially towards the clicked location. Hold Option while clicking in the scroll bar to jump directly to the clicked location.
  • In a scroll view, use the Up/Down keys to scroll in small increments. Hold Option to scroll in larger increments, and hold Command to scroll to the beginning or end.

Screenshoots #

  • After pressing Shift + Command + 4, hold Control while taking the screenshot to copy to the clipboard instead of saving to file.
  • After pressing Shift + Command + 4, press the Space bar to select a window to screenshot. Hold down Option while taking the screenshot to remove the window’s shadow.
  • Right click on the floating screenshot preview to access additional actions.

Open/Save dialogs #

  • Press / to open it prefilled with the root directory.
  • Press ⌘ + R to reveal the selected item in Finder.

Mission Control / Window Management #

Menu Bar / Notification Center #

  • Hold Option while opening the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth menus to access extra options.
  • Hold Command while dragging a menu bar icon to move it to a new position.
  • Add new menu bar items by dragging icons from Control Center to the menu bar.
  • Option-click the date/time in the menu bar to toggle Do Not Disturb.
  • On a trackpad, swipe horizontally with two fingers over a notification to dismiss that notification.

Finder #

  • After copying a file, press ⌥⌘V to move the file instead of pasting a copy of it.
  • Press ⌃⌘N with multiple files selected to create a new folder with those items.
  • Press Tab and Shift-Tab to navigate through files alphabetically, regardless of the current sort ordering (only in Icons and List view).
  • Hold Option while activating Quick Look to immediately launch into full-screen view.
  • After opening Quick Look with multiple files selected, press ⌘⏎ to display a grid view of all items. Use the arrow keys to navigate and press Return to select an item to focus on.
  • In Columns view, hold Option while resizing a column to simultaneously resize all columns.
  • In Columns view, double-click a column separator to auto-resize that column. Hold Option while double-clicking on any separator to auto-resize all columns.
  • In Columns view, click the empty space at the bottom of a folder to go to the parent folder.
  • In Columns view, and when in a deeply nested file, press Shift-Tab and Tab to navigate through the parent directories without losing the path to the file.
  • Hold Option while dragging a file to make a new copy instead of moving the original. Hold Command and Option to create an alias to the file.
  • Press ⌘I to show the inspector for the current file.
  • Press ⌥⌘I to show a floating inspector that updates with the selected file.
  • Press ⌥⌘C to copy the full pathname of the currently selected file.
  • Press ⇧⌘. to toggle showing hidden files.
  • Merge folders by holding Option while dragging one folder on top of another folder.
  • Set a custom icon for a folder by copying the new icon, inspecting the folder (⌘I), and pasting the icon by selecting the folder icon in the upper-left of the inspector window and pressing ⌘V.
  • Drag selected text into a Finder window to quickly create and save a text clipping. (Text clippings are text files that can’t be edited and don’t require a filename to be saved.)
  • Press ⌥⌘O to open the selected file and automatically close the Finder window.
  • Press ⌥⇧⌘V to paste an item while preserving the file permission flags.
  • Hold Command while dragging an icon in Icon view to align it to a grid.
  • Restart Finder by holding Option while right-clicking the Finder dock icon and selecting Relaunch.
  • Drag a folder to the new tab button (only visible if multiple tabs are already open) to open the folder in a new tab.
  • Press ⌃⌘↑ to open the parent folder in a new window.
  • If the toolbar is hidden (⌥⌘T), Finder will open folders in a new window.
  • Press ⌘R with an image selected to rotate it clockwise, and ⌘L to rotate it counter-clockwise.

Dock #

  • Press ⌥⌘D to hide and show the dock.
  • Right-click the Launchpad dock icon to open an app from an inline menu.
  • Add shortcuts to System Settings to the Dock by navigating to /System/Library/PreferencePanes and dragging preference panes to the Dock.
  • To add AirDrop to the Dock, navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Applications in Finder and drag the AirDrop icon to the Dock.

Spotlight #

  • Press ⌘C to copy the full path to the selected file, or to copy the result of the current calculation.
  • Press ⌘⏎ or ⌘R to reveal the selected file in Finder.
  • Use the name: filter to only search in the filename.
  • Add kind:folder to only search for folder names.
  • Hold Command to show the path to the currently selected file.

Preview #

  • Press ` to bring up a magnifier, and then press + and - to resize it.
  • In a PDF document, re-order the pages in the document by re-ordering the pages in the sidebar.
  • Merge two PDF documents by dragging pages from one document’s sidebar to the other document’s sidebar.
  • In the save dialog for an image, hold Option while opening the Format menu to access an extended list of formats.
  • Hold Option and the Space bar to activate the pan tool.
  • Hold Option while in text selection mode to switch to rectangular text selection.

QuickTime Player #

  • Grab a single frame from a video by pausing on the desired frame (using the Left and Right arrow keys to navigate individual frames) and pressing ⌘C.

Photo Booth #

  • Hold Option while taking a picture to skip the countdown.