Open terminal window on mac how to#
Open terminal window on mac mac#

Open a file in another folder: open file path Open a file under the current folder: open filename

Now inside this folder, I can enter touch sample.txt to generate a txt file called sample. I will then put in mkdir test1 and press Enter.

Open terminal window on mac how to#

How to create, open and delete a directory in Terminal?įor instance, I want to create a folder named test1. How to list a directory in Terminal?Īfter using the cd command to switch to the desired directory, you can utilize ls to view all the files or folders inside it. Don't forget to press Return after inputting the command. If you need to navigate to another folder, you can copy this command to Terminal and change 'desired directory' for the one you want to open. How to change directory in Terminal?īy default, you are brought to the home directory when you open a Terminal window.

Open terminal window on mac mac#

If you simply want to interrupt a running process in Mac Terminal, you can press Control-C. Warning: Mac Terminal won't ask you to confirm if you really want to kill a process, so use these commands sparingly. If you need to terminate all processes with Google, input killall Google. To kill all the processes with the specific name: killall process name You can now enter kill 1234 to exit Music immediately (suppose the PID number of Music is 1234). Then find the PID number of Music and type q to return. If you want to force quit Music, type top in the Terminal window and press Enter. To terminate a process immediately: kill PID number There are two ways to kill a process with Mac Terminal. How to kill a process in Terminal?įorcing a process to quit will cause you all the unsaved changes, so ensure that the target process is the correct one and save the changes you made. When you are unsure which directory you are in, enter pwd to make a check. If your file system is case-sensitive, Terminal can only recognize the original name, so Desktop can't be desktop. We will explain some common commands you can use to finish simple tasks in this section. You usually need to go to Finder to see the changes you made with Terminal, except the command requires a new window display.If you want to clear a window occupied with texts, simply type in clear and press Return. You can use the up arrow key to repeat a command.If you mistake the code, you may receive an error message, or the command will run in the wrong way. Commands won't execute until you press the return key.A command consists of three parts: the command name, a modifier to the command's output, and where the command will operate. Once you open Terminal, you will see a small window with the title listing the name of the current directory, the type of the shell, and the window's size in pixels. Upon the macOS recovery window, you can pull down the Utilities menu and click on Terminal to open the Terminal app. To launch Terminal on an Intel-based Mac, you need to boot your Mac into macOS Recovery mode by holding down Command + R keys until you see the startup screen at restarting.įor M1 Macs, you need to shut down the computer first and press the power button until you see 'Loading startup options', then click Option > Continue. How to open Terminal from macOS Recovery mode? If you prefer to open Terminal on Mac with a keyboard only, you need to create a shortcut. If you plan to use Terminal often, you can pin it on the Dock by right-clicking on the Terminal icon and choosing 'Keep in Dock' from the Options menu. You can also find it in the Utilities folder under Applications in Finder. Then you can type in 'Terminal' and double-click the appeared Terminal. Click on the small magnifying glass icon at the top-right corner of your Mac or press Command + Space keys at the same time to launch Spotlight. The easiest way to open Terminal is from Spotlight search. Otherwise, you can access it from the macOS Recovery mode. If your Mac works well, you can launch Terminal from Desktop through Spotlight or Finder. The Terminal app provides a command-line interface on Mac computers to allow you to control the operating system quickly and efficiently to perform tasks a graphical user interface is unable or requires more effort to deliver. Generally speaking, people use two interfaces to communicate with computers: GUI (graphic user interface) and CLI (command-line interface). Let's start with some basics to help you dig deeper and work with complicated tasks in the future. It has the advantages of being more efficient with tasks, troubleshooting issues, and repairing disks through SSH or Mac Single User Mode when you lost access to the user account. It's the macOS version of Windows's Command Prompt and is very helpful for people who are used to command lines. We are all familiar with the graphical user interface that we use daily to interact with our Macs, but not so much with the Mac command-line interface - Terminal.