Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal

by Joe Kissell

If you've ever thought you should learn how to use the Unix command line that underlies Mac OS X, or felt at sea when typing commands into Terminal, Joe Kissell is here to help! This 111-page ebook will help you become comfortable working on the Mac's command line, starting with the fundamentals and walking you through more advanced topics as your knowledge increases. And if you're uncertain how to put your new-found skills to use, Joe includes numerous real-life "recipes" for tasks that are best done from the command line.The book begins by teaching you these core concepts:The differences between Unix, a command line, a shell, and Terminal
Exactly how commands, arguments, and flags work
The basics of Terminal's interface and how to customize it
Next, it's on to the command line, where you'll learn:How to navigate your Mac's file system
Basic file management: creating, copying, moving, renaming, opening, viewing, and deleting files
The types of command-line programs
How to edit a text file in nano (even if you are not named Mork)
What a profile is, why it's cool, and how to customize yours
The importance of your PATH and how to change it, if you need to
How to get help (Joe goes way beyond telling you to consult the man pages)
You'll extend your skills as you discover how to:Create and run scripts to automate repetitive tasks.
See which programs are running and what system resources they're consuming.
Quit programs that refuse to quit normally.
Enable the command line to interact with the Finder.
Control another Mac via its command line using ssh.
Understand and change an item's permissions, owner, and group.
Run commands as the root user using sudo.
Questions answered include:Which shell am I using, and how can I change my default shell?
How do I quickly figure out the path to an item on my Mac?
How can I customize my Terminal window so I can see man pages behind it?
How can I make a shortcut to avoid retyping the same long command?
Is there a trick for entering a long path quickly?
What should I say when someone asks if I know how to use vi?
How do I change my prompt to suit my mood or needs?
Finally, to help you put it all together, the book showcases 40 real-world "recipes" that combine commands you've learned to perform useful tasks, such as listing users who've logged in recently, figuring out why a disk won't eject, changing filename extensions, copying the source code of a Web page, downloading a file via FTP, determing which programs have open connections to the Internet, learning details about a domain name, and deleting stubborn items from the Trash.

Genres: Computers, Technical, Technology

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 2, 2009

About the author

Joe Kissell is the author of more than 60 books and hundreds of articles on technology topics. In 2017, he also became the publisher of Take Control Books, when alt concepts—the company he runs along with his wife, Morgen Jahnke—acquired the Take Control imprint from TidBITS Publishing Inc. He was the winner of a 2009 Neal award for Best How-to Article, and formerly wrote for publications such as Macworld, TidBITS, and Wirecutter. Before he began writing full-time in 2003, Joe managed software development for Nisus Software and Kensington Technology Group. In his hypothetical spare time, Joe likes to walk, cook, read, and practice tai chi. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, with Morgen and their sons.

Reviews

[Irene Ong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical book that’s free of frills. I appreciated Kissell’s straightforward writing style! It helped convey the technical information in a very digestible and easily understandable manner. I come from a computer science background, but I believe anyone could pick up this book and start working with the command line.

[Radivoje Panic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very practical book!

In short content, all aspects of the terminal are processed. And ordinary amateurs can learn and use terminal. Very practical book.

[Vibhor Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book served a beginner guide to learn about the terminal and interact with it. Most of the basics, are covered and is more than enough for an average Mac user ( like myself ).

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly written and contains a lot of useful information.

[Brian Rivard · Rating 5 out of 5]

An indispensable book if you really want to get the most out of your Mac.

[Raphael Dahomay · Rating 5 out of 5]

while true; do Sleep 0.5; say “That book was highly helpful”; done

[Zofie]

A bit basic knowledge.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

great starter book

I had a easy working through this ebook with it on one side of the screen and terminal in the other. Most commands taught work for both linux and OS X.

[Anton Antonov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe Kissell wrote a good introductory book for the OSX terminal but that's about it. As a CLI user from another OS, there's really nothing to learn here.

[Lekan Kazeem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Kissell is a legend, definately one of my favorite academic authors after reading this book.

[Hailong Hao · Rating 4 out of 5]

最近事多，靠读 Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal by Joe Kissell 放松，刚刚读完。此书算是把我之前只会乱用乱改加瞎猜的命令行基础知识和技能系统梳理了一遍，虽然有些浅，对于新手来说也是一本不错的教程了。