Why use the terminal in daily non-programming life

command lineterminal

Disclaimer: I'm a Windows boy awaiting his first mac. I never bothered learning/using command-line interfaces.

I've been looking at the Terminal Tips and Tricks topic and I don't see how any of those commands would be faster than using the GUI.

For example, someone explained how to search with spotlight, using the terminal. How is this better than just using spotlight?

Could you guys give some real-life examples of situations where you really benefited from your terminal knowledge ?

Best Answer

Aside for development-related purposes, the command line is an excellent tool for automating actions, scripting, and a host of other things that are probably faster than doing them in say, the Finder.

For instance, sometimes I'll be in a folder and want to remove a certain set of files (say, Hello-1.jpg, Hello-2.jpg, Hello-3.jpg, and so on). In the Finder, I'd have to manually select all these files (my Finder is normally set to icon view, so it's a pain to select many files), then move to the trash (granted, I do use the shortcut), and then empty the trash (again, shortcut). For some people, this is convenient enough, but when you get used to using the Terminal, you find that simply typing rm Hello-* is a much faster way to do it.

Of course, this is only one example (a complicated process like moving files to a server or batch resizing photos will gain even more from using the Terminal), but the more you'll look into the topic, the more useful you'll find it. If you're willing to adopt using the Terminal, there's really no reason not to (you'll get slightly less productive in the beginning, but you'll get much better fast).

Related Solutions

Mac – Use MacVim as standard Terminal

You're confusing the terminal with the text editor, as other commenters have pointed out. Still, there are a number of ways to make the terminal more vim-like, or vim more terminal-like.

If it's vi-style keybindings in the terminal you're after, add set -o vi to your ~/.bash_profile (assuming you're using bash). This will allow you to use vi-style keybindings at the command line (hjkl movement, modal editing, etc.)

If you just want to be able to execute unix commands from within vim, prepend ! to the beginning of those commands at the (Mac)Vim command line. For example :!pwd will print the working directory.

There are also plugins like Conque which allow you to run a shell from within Vim, which sounds like it may be exactly what you're after.

MacOS – Why does OS X Mavericks block the purge command in Terminal

You need to run this command with root privileges. Try:

> sudo purge

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:

Enter your account's password and it should run the purge command.

Apple probably made the decision for security purposes. The only disadvantage is you have to type in your admin password. The advantage is, for non-admin users, they can not run this command and potentially harm their OS.

Usually commands that require sudo in order to run at all are potentially destructive or invasive. Two other commands with this requirement are dtrace and xcode-select.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Mac – Use MacVim as standard Terminal

MacOS – Why does OS X Mavericks block the purge command in Terminal

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