Apple Macintosh OS X Commands

This document lists the OS X-specific commands added or substantially tailored by Apple. The list is as of OS 10.2.6.

It does not list commands that are only relevant to developers (e.g., C compilers).

/Developer/Tools/BuildStrings
/Developer/Tools/CpMac
/Developer/Tools/Derez
/Developer/Tools/GetFileInfo
/Developer/Tools/MergePef
/Developer/Tools/MvMac
/Developer/Tools/ResMerger
/Developer/Tools/Rez
/Developer/Tools/RezWack
/Developer/Tools/SetFile
/Developer/Tools/SplitForks
/Developer/Tools/UnRezWack
/System/Library/CoreServices/Setup Assistant
/usr/bin/chflags
/usr/bin/defaults
/usr/bin/drutil
/usr/bin/drutil tray eject -drive internal
/usr/bin/drutil tray close -drive internal
/usr/bin/hdiutil
/usr/bin/lsbom
/usr/bin/open
/usr/bin/osacompile
/usr/bin/osascript, especially osascript -e "say"
/usr/bin/pbpaste
/usr/bin/plutil
/usr/bin/redo_prebinding
/usr/bin/resetpassword
/usr/bin/say
/usr/bin/sips
/usr/bin/update_prebinding
/usr/libexec/authopen
/usr/sbin/asr
/usr/sbin/bless
/usr/sbin/diskutil repairPermissions /
/usr/sbin/dot_clean
/usr/sbin/dsconfigad
/usr/sbin/ioreg
/usr/sbin/kextfind
/usr/sbin/lookupd
/usr/sbin/networksetup
/usr/sbin/nvram
/usr/sbin/pkgutil
/usr/sbin/screencapture
/usr/sbin/softwareupdate
/usr/sbin/systemsetup

and

netinfod(8) - NetInfo daemon
nibindd(8) - NetInfo binder
nicl(1) - NetInfo command line utility
nidomain(8) - NetInfo domain utility
nidump(8) - extract text or flat-file-format data from NetInfo
nifind(1) - find a directory in the NetInfo hierarchy
nigrep(1) - search for a regular expression in the NetInfo hierarchy
niload(8) - load text or flat-file-format data into NetInfo
nireport(1) - print tables from the NetInfo hierarchy
niutil(1) - NetInfo utility

Please send additions/changes to me. I am Craig A. Finseth.

Spotlight Commands

mdfind
mdls
mdimport
mdutil

Unix Commands

If you aren't familiar with Unix but can find a use for the above, you will probably want to be aware of these standard Unix commands:

alias
bless
find
man
sudo
whereis

AppleScript Debugging Environment Variables

Do the following from a Terminal command line for a csh or tcsh:

setenv AEDebug 1
setenv AEDebugSends 1
setenv AEDebugReceives 1

Or do this for a sh, ksh, or bash shell:

export AEDebug=1
export AEDebugSends=1
export AEDebugReceives=1

Note that the default Terminal shell for OS X 10.0 through 10.2 is tcsh, but they changed it to bash starting with 10.3.

Safari Debug Menu

Enable by entering this command from a Terminal command line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 1

and disable by:

defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDebugMenu 0

Speed Up Sheets

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSWindowResizeTime time

where time is a time in seconds from, say, .001 to 2.

Set Default Umask

defaults write /Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences NSUmask #

defaults write -g NSUmask -int #

The first sets the global, system default and the second sets the per-user default. The NSUmask may not be honored by software that has not been adapted for OS X. # is the umask (per umask(2)). It may, however, be in decimal instead of octal.

Set Whether to Show Hidden Files

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

and, to put it back:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO

You'll have to restart the Finder (or log out and log back in) for this to take effect.

Set Login Window "MOTD" Text

Edit:

/Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist

Between the <dict>/</dict> tags, insert a <key>...</key> and <string>...</string> pair as:

	<dict>
		...
	<key>LoginwindowText</key>
	<string>MOTD TEXT</string>
		...
	</dict>