John Siu Blog

Some MacOS commands and keyboard shortcuts.

Keyboard Shortcut

Desktop Space

Un-minimize

Run Application from Command Line

Application name is case-sensitive. Use tab for auto-complete.

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open -a <application>
open -a Google\ Earth\ Pro

Launch Control

• List all services

  1 2 3

  launchctl list # List services launchctl load <plist file> # Start service launchctl unload <plist file> # Stop service

• List all 3rd-party(non-Apple) services

  1	launchctl list|grep -v com.apple.

• System Service Location

  • /Library/LaunchDaemons/
  • /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/

Memory Usage

Result is in page number. Multiply with page size show at the top.

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vm_stat

Kernel Extension

• List all kernel extension

  1

  kextstat

• List all non-Apple extension

  1	kextstat | grep -v com.apple

Plist Content

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plutil -p <file>

Safe Mode

Hold down Shift during boot.

Command line may not work anymore.

• Enable

  1 2	sudo nvram boot-args="-x" sudo nvram boot-args="-x -v"

• Disable

  1	sudo nvram boot-args=""

Network Setup Command

• Help

  1	networksetup

• List all network service

  1	networksetup -listallnetworkservices

• Turn network service on/off

  1 2 3

  networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled <networkservice> <on off> networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Ethernet off networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Ethernet on

Change Hostname

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sudo scutil --set HostName <hostname>

dns-sd (mdns/avahi/bonjour)

Get address of hostname

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dns-sd -G v4v6 <hostname>

Mouse Speed

• Get

  1	defaults read -g com.apple.mouse.scaling

• Set

  May need reboot.

  1	defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling your_mouse_speed

Play Audio

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afplay <file>

Play Text (TTS)

Check available voices and languages

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say -v \?

TTS

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say <text>

Specify voice and language

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say -v Flo\ \(Chinese\ \(Taiwan\)\) 你好

Disable Spotlight Index

Index status for a directory

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mdutil -s .

Disable indexing for a directory

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cd <dir>
touch .metadata_never_index