Mac Training Guide!

This is the Internet & Network section of Mac OS X System Preferences, here We will setup our MobileMe Account, the System Network and Internet Preferences, Quicktime and Mac OS X File Sharing. This is the heart of the Network interaction of the System and how it accesses or lets other accesses its files.

MobileMe

MobileMe is a service from Apple that helps you collect all your critical information, store it in a central server (cloud server) and get it delivered to all your previously subscribed devices. MobileMe synchronizes all your business and personal information over the air, instantly and without hassles. It’s ideal for people on the go that need to have access to their information every second. In this screen you must supply your USERNAME and PASSWORD you set at the MobileMe signing window.

For more information about MobileMe Visit:
What is MobileMe and how it works?

Account

This is your Account Summary, it shows your account name, your account type, your Mail Storage and iDisk available space.

Sync

In the Sync area you specify what part of your system will be synchronize with your other devices, you select what applications to sync: Calendars, Bookmarks, Contacts, Safari preferences, System Preferences, Mail, Mail Rules Signatures and more.

iDisk

In this section you can monitor your iDisk available space, manage your iDisk public folder, let others access it to Read or to Read and Write, set password for you iDisk folder and turn on and off your iDisk synchronization.

Back to Mac

Here your files and screen shared with your other Back to Mac enabled Macs over the net.

Network

Here you can select your connection type (wireless, Built-in Ethernet, Firewire…), have it automatically setup or set your Location based network settings or better, have your network setup assisted with the Assist Me option that helps you get your network up and running in not time.

Depending on your network type you must supply the local ip address, subnet mask, router information, DNS Server IP and your Search Domains.

Quicktime

In the Quicktime Area you can provide your codes for Quicktime Pro, set how your movies behave when opened, set your Streaming Speed and set the MIME types for your Quicktime to handle.

Setting your MIME correctly will help you get the most out of internet media, because this is the only way to tell your internet media what application will handle it.

If you need to watch Live TV broadcasted using Windows Media Server you must download Flip4mac and go to the MIME section and setup Quicktime as the application that will handle all your Windows Media services, if you failed to do it so you won’t be able to watch you favorite Live TV station on Quicktime.

Sharing

In the Sharing Area you can make your CDs and DVDs available to others, share your Screen, open Access for others to your files, share your printers, setup a Web Sharing for your Intranet or Extranet, provide remote access to your files and folders, setup remote management for your System, make your computer to share or be part of a Xgrid setup and internet sharing that lets others see your computer information over internet.

You must provide privileges for your users, remember that an open network is a place for malicious activities, you must never let your System totally open, if you don’t know how to setup a protected network consult a specialist first, providing full access to your computer may damage your file integrity and compromise your personal data.

Header Image courtesy of www.sxu.com

MobileMe is a service from Apple that helps you collect all your critical information, store it in a central server (cloud server) and get it delivered to all your previously subscribed devices. MobileMe synchronizes all your business and personal information over the air, instantly and without hassles. It’s ideal for people on the go that need to have access to their information every second.

MobileMe uses a both way sync or push, it delivers your mobile information to the cloud server and once received it updates all your home or office devices, keeping all points updated with fresh information. MobileMe interface is clean, easy to use, elegant and pleasant, a mature interface that offers an easy to use layout.

MobileMe up and Running

At this year WWDC (2008), Apple retooled the .mac service and renamed it as MobileMe, a syncronization service that will have all your devices updated simultaneaously. Your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery and iDisk will be on the Cloud for you to access them whenever and whererver you like it. And the syncronization is among multiple devices, your iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and Windows PC, the most important thing about MobileMe is that it’s an ad-free service.

MobileMe Features:

Push Email

MobileMe Mail pushes new messages to your iPhone automatically and notifies you when they arrive. You’ll instant notification for new email. On your iPhone and iPod touch, it works with the built-in Mail application. It also works with Mail on a Mac and Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail on a PC. Emails are scanned for viruses.

Push Contacts

With MobileMe Contacts, you have all your address book information at your fingertips. Any change to your Contacts and automatically all your devices will be updated-synchronized, giving you more access and control of your information anytime and anywhere.

Push Mobile Gallery

Mobile Gallery provides a destination for your friends and family, you can upload photos from your computer or iPhone to your Gallery and invite people to visit, download and share their favorites, and even contribute their own. It provides fancy and animated views, mosaic, carousel or slideshow.

Push Calendar

MobileMe pushes your calendar information to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. So you always know where you need to be and when you need to be there. You can make changes on one device and MobileMe automatically updates all your other devices, it works with iCal on a Mac and Outlook on Windows PC.

iDisk

MobileMe provides a virtual disk accessible from anywhere and with every browser on the market, it comes with a 20GB combined email and file storage and can be accessed from your Mac OS X Finder. iDisk is the easier and more reliable way to transport your office or personal files and access them on the road.

Prices and Availabilities

MobileMe is said to be up and running today and can be accessed from Mac and Windows computers with any browser, this technology is ready to use with your iphone and ipod touch too and there is not news about support for other mobile devices. MobileMe is a subscription based service with a price of $99 a year for indivual use with a 20GB of combined email and file storage, 200GB of monthly bandwidth and $149 for a Family Pack (4 members) with 5GB of combined email and file storage, and 50GB of monthly data transfer for each member.

Third parties support is unknown and virus or any thread is under Apple control, but the price could be a roadblock for some mac users that were expecting a cheaper price for the service.

 

 

Images courtesy of Apple. Used for editorial purpose only.

This is the Hardware section of Mac OS X System Preferences, here We will tweak the system to interact with CDs-DVDs, the Display, control how the Keyboard and Mouse behave, install printers and set the audio alerts.

CDs & DVDs

In this option, We assign a function for the System to do when a Blank CD and DVD is loaded, when a Music or Picture CD is inserted We set the application to use it, We can even tell the System what to do if a DVD Movie is loaded.

Displays

In Displays We can change our monitor resolutions, select how many colors the screen should use and even rotate our screen 90º, 180º and 270º. The System provides an automatic Display detector that helps you choose the correct resolution and color to use.

In the Color Tab you can calibrate your Display or choose a Calibration Profile provided by the System. It’s recommended to have your Display calibrated if you work in the Pre-Press, Graphic and Video Production business. Calibrating your Display helps you get a more accurate color information for all your graphic applications. Apple provides Colorsync to help you get the most realistic colors from your computer. Colorsync is used when you calibrate your Displays.

Energy Saver

Energy Saver is used to tell the computer when to go to sleep in order to stop consuming energy while idle, it tells Mac OS X that if the Computer is idle for a X period of time to shut down the Display and put the System to rest until a key or a mouse is pressed. Here We can tell the System to wake up if a network connection is detected, if the modem detects an incoming call, to use the Power Button in order to put the System to sleep and to wake up if a Energy interruption has ocurred.

Keyboard and Mouse

In this area We control the Mouse and Keyboard speed, the double click speed and the delay between clicks and assign our own keyboard combinations to any given function of the System.

Print and Fax

In the Print & Fax area We select the Printer to use, this Printer can be a USB Printer attached to the computer, a IP based printer on a network, a Windows shared Printer, a Bluetooth Printer or a Printer in an AppleTalk network. For the Fax We can use the Internal Modem if your computer has one or a USB based Modem from Apple or any other vendor.

Here We can set the Default Paper Size, check for Print Queue Jobs and Share our Printer going to the Network Printer Sharing option.

Sounds

The System Sounds, here We can assign the Default sound alert, Mute the whole System, control de Volume and assign the Output and Input ports to be used by the System (Line out – Digital out, Line in – Digital in).

Next
Internet & Network
MobileMe
Network
Quicktime
Sharing

Header Image courtesy of www.sxu.com

System Preferences

The System Preferences is where We setup almost all the features of Mac OS X, it modifies, adjusts, controls and enhances OS X. It’s like the Control Panels in Mac OS 9, it contains all the switches needed to customize every major aspect of OS X.

Appearance

In the Appearance section you can change the Color of Buttons, set the prefered color for your text selection, change the positions of the scrolling arrows (at the bottom and top or together), set the minimize option for double clicking in the title bar.

In the Appearance you set the numbers of Recent Items for Applications, Documents and Servers that will be shown in the Recent Items Menu.

Desktop and Screensaver

Desktop

This is where you place your Desktop background image, it can be set to load automatically a different image every 5 seconds to every day, even better, it can load your iPhoto Albums or Aperture Projects.

Screensaver

Here you can set your favorite Screensaver from an excellent collection supplied with Mac OS X or you can add yours from internet. Screensavers can be made from an iPhoto Album or Aperture Projects too, it can be a RSS Feed downloaded from the internet using your RSS feeds from Apple Mail and Safari.

Exposé and Spaces

Exposé

Exposé is a quick look to all your opened applications and windows, it helps you locate any file or document on the desktop or jump from one applicatio with a simple click. There’s a function key setting for All Windows, All Applications and the Desktop, you can change it anytime.

Spaces

Spaces lets you set a private area for any given application, it can help you separate and categorize the opened tasks by assigning their own space to each and everyone of them, this way you can concentrate on doing your job in a clean and organize desktop, away from your ordinary files. You can move windows from one to another space. Add and reduce the number of Spaces, assign keystrokes to travel across the spaces.

International

The International Tab lets you change your primary language of Mac OS X by dragging it to the upper position, the next time you start up your System will be in that localization. You can remove unused locatization using Monolingual.

Formats

In Formats you can set the Date, Time and Currency formats for Mac OS X, set your Calendar type and set your Measurement Unit.

Input

In Input you can change your keyboard layout.

Security

In Security you can lock some of the most important features of Mac OS X, disable autologin, lock the System Preferences and set a time for autolog out.

FileVault

FileVault is a powerful AES-128 encryption based application that lock your home directory keeping your critical information away from spying eyes. FileVault encrypts and decrypts your documents as you need them.

You can set a Master Password to lock and unlock any FileVautl account.

Firewall

The Mac OS X Firewall lets you control the access of all incoming connections, it can block connections from certain type of applications, enable the Stealth Mode that guarantees that any incoming connection doesn’t receive any notification from your mac, hiding you from the outside.

Spotlight

Spotlight provides the easier way to find anything in your mac, it indexes your information at put it in your face any time you need it, it keeps indexing the content of all your documents and lets you search inside them shorting the distance between you and what you are looking for. Spotlight can perform complex arithmetic operations, search the System Dictionary and more. You can stop Spotlight from indexing some critical information by selecting it at the Privacy tab.

What follows:
System Preferences:
CDs/DVDs
Displays
Energy Saver
Keyboard and Mouse
Print and Fax
Sound

All UNIX based systems has a set of Maintenance Routines that clean all temporary files by default, these Routines are set to make your System more efficient by getting rid of unused files.

The Maintenance Routines are normally set to automatically run between 03:15 and 05:30, but your computer may not be up and running every minute and can miss it and by missing the cleaning routine you may end up having an big collection of log files, crashing reports and more. But you can run the Maintenance Routines manually using MacJanitor.

MacJanitor

MaJanitor unique function is to make the Maintenance Routines set to run whenever you decide, it is a scheduler utilitiy that control how and when your next System clean up can be accomplished, it is a ultra easy to set and run.

It comes with 4 Sets (Daily, Weekly, Monthly and All Task) where you can set the right time and date for the Maintenance Routines to performance the System cleanup, you will need to enter your Administrator password in order to MacJanitor to run.

MacJanitor takes advantage of UNIX own Maintenance Routines and reschedule them to a better time, it is a basic System Utility that guarantee that Mac OS X runs flawlessly. Run MacJanitor periodically when you get a free minute every few days or weeks, it only help your System to breath clean air by trashing those logs and crash report files.

You can get MacJanitor free here.

When moving files from your Windows PC to your Mac, you may notice a little application called Thumbs.db located in every folder, this file is a cache file for your Windows thumbnail pictures, it’s used to speed up your picture viewing and depending on how many images you have you will end up having a bigger or smaller thumbs.db file.

The only real problem is that you could collect hundreds of them with different sizes taking up too much space on your hard disks, the Thumbs.db isn’t necessary on Mac OS X, so you could delete it and save some few hundred megabytes.

How delete them?
Easy:
1. Go to your Spotlight and Enter: thumbs.db
2. Select Show All from the Spotlight result window
3. Drag the selection to the Trash and not more thumbs.db.

In this opportunity We will evaluate MacPilot, a Mac OS X System utility that will help you customize the whole system, enabling or disabling much of the Unix features that make Mac OS X a fortress. You can optimize the whole computer performance, network and file sharing in general, this is a hard rock utility that puts you in control of Apple Speed Demon. MacPilot brings an easy way to tweak the System and all its features, there’s nothing left untouched, all System Resources are exposed for you to set or remove them.

General

In the General section you can setup how the System’s utilities interact with Mac OS X, control some features of Apple iLIfe and iWork, this is an easy to access and a smart way to set all applications and utilities in just one window pane with a few clicks.

Disks

The Disks section is where you can repair your disks permissions and ownership, verify your disk configuration and defects, set the sleep time and enable or disable the Journaling

Network

In this area you can check your network performance and tweak it to get the faster connection, this area is NOT recommended for users without a previous acknowledge of Networking. This is a Pro area, do not touch it.

Login Items

In the Login Items you can add or remove those apps and utilities that need to start up with the System.

Startup

Control how your computer use its processors, check on screen Kernel Panics, mute your startup chime, set your startup mode, change your System language and limit the amount of Memory used by the System at Startup.

Spotlight

In the Spotlight section you can enable or disable Spotlight, rebuild and reindex your HDs, avoid Dictionary and Mathematical results in Spotlight.

Power

Help the System manage the energy more efficiently tweaking its Power settings.

Tools

With this Option alone you can make an Application, here is where the power of MacPilot rest, this is the Holly Grace, the area where you can manipulate Mac OS X completely, make it more efficient and responsible, in this area you can verify your files integrity, erase, lockup, clear chaches, rebuild all your applications and system preferences and delete corrupted ones, reset the printing system and more. Don’t forget to check the Tools Area.

Info

Info provides a complete list of your System settings, HDs, Network, Memore and more, it’s like the System Profiler included in every Mac, Info comes with a Character Map of your System, a full list of Keyboard Combinations, a Port List that lets you see which ports are assiged to the System or any Application or Game. In the Info area you can find a complete of Mac OS Error Codes and their meanings.

Summary
MacPilot is a joy to use, a well detailed and organized utility program that provides easy access to the most unthinkable features of Mac OS X, helping you put the System under control.

It has an enormous list of features, hundreds of them can help you increase your whole System performance. The Tools section should be placed next to General, both provide control of almost everything in your System, Striping out the General and the Tools areas you can have another great application.

MacPilot is sold for $19.95 (Single License), but for the tools and controls you have in your hand with MacPilot, the starting price should be around $49.95 or more, We pay hundred of dollars for offfice and business applications, why not for a Professional System utility that helps us streamline our Macs. Definitively it worth more than its original price.

You can visite MacPilot here. Please notice that We are not Affiliated, Endorsed or Sponsored by the makers of MacPilot, this is our own experience with this Application.

Following our Tweaking the Mac OS X Performance Series (read: 20 Dirty Tweaks to Mac OS X 10.5 inside demons) in order to get the most out of this Speed Demon, we are going to get our hands dirty again testing the solutions provided by the most recommended and used System Utilities available for Mac OS X, how they achieve each of every one of their primary goals: Keep Mac OS X fresh and energized. We are not Affiliated or Sponsored in any form (paid review, paid recommendation) by the makers of Cocktail, We are using Cocktail for months and we really believe that his application worth every penny spent, but your own experience may differ from our, evaluate it first.

We will be evaluating 7 Mac OS X Utilities that promise to clean and help the System work smoothly: Cocktail, Mac Pilot, OnyX, DoktorKleanor, MacJanitor, Leopard Cache Cleaner, Blacktree-Secrets and TinkerTool System.

COCKTAIL

Cocktail is general purpose utility for Mac OS X that helps you get the most from the hidden Unix features of Mac OS X, streamlining the performance of our beloved Mac OS X. Cocktail’s features are arranged in five categories. In addition, a Pilot lets you clean, repair and optimize your system with one click of the button.

Disks Section

In the Disks Section of Cocktail you can set for Automacally SMART status of your disks, enable or disable the journaling of your disk, repair permission, set your disk sleep time, allow or prevent mounting external disks at the System Startup.

System Section

The System Section is where you can enable or disable Spotlight indexing in your HDs, erase and rebuild the Spotlight indexes, rebuild the launch database and force empty Trash.

Files Section

The Files section provides the tools needed to clean ALL your system caches, clean virtual memory swap files or temporary files created by applications, you can reset your Safari, Camino, Firefox, Omniweb, Opera and Shiira cookies, form values, history files, caches and page icons.

Network Section

This is where you setup and optimize your network connection, take advantage of Mac OS X Unix heritage and put the System network ready to Roll. This is a section designed for Network specialist, people that really understand the benefits of the different type of networks. Don’t change anything here if you are not familiar with the Settings shown.

Interface Section

The interface section of Cocktail is where things get interesting, here you can setup how Mac OS X behaves, customize look and features of Finder, Dock, Exposé, login window and other system services, Modify hidden settings of Address Book, Backup, Disk Utility, iTunes, Mail, Remote Desktop and Terminal.

Pilot Section

In this area you can set the Schedule for the next Automatic Optimization of your computer, performing a group of options with just one click. While this is a nice feature I don’t recommend Unattended Optimizations from any Utility for your System, something can go wrong and you may have a difficult time verifying and repairing your disc.

The Summary
Cocktail is a tremendous utility loaded with dozens of features that help you enhance Mac OS X, speeding up, removing unused features and turning on those that make the system more responsible, Cocktail is the tool you need to have a more efficient and powerful, cleaner and faster Mac OS X, it really puts the system in shape.

Cocktail is not a freeware utility, it comes with different license prices to meet your personal or corporate need, there is an evaluation demo you can download and use it for a period of time, but prices are:
Buy a Single User License ($14.95) for one computer.
Buy a Family License ($29.95) Covers up to five computers (household use only).
Buy a Ten-Pack License ($89.95) Covers up to ten computers.
Buy a Site License ($399) Covers all locations for your organization within a 160 kilometer radius of your site (100 miles).
Buy a World Wide License ($699) Covers all locations for your organization.

You can visit Cocktail here.

Stay tuned for our MacPilot Evaluation…

Mac OS X 10.5 is a speed demon that sometimes needs to be tweaked to get out all its performance in line with what you expect from it, this is a combination of common sense and smart tweaks to achieve the higher satisfaction. There are some sacrifices that we live with in order to achieve a better working environment. Here some tips and tricks to put Mac OS X 10.5 and its horsepower to work for you.

1. Slow Startup
There is a bunch of things that can make your Mac OS X 10.5 startup to be slow, corrupted files, preferences, network lookup, Startup items, Spotlight indexing and more. We will start searching for the perfect tweak to make this great OS to shine for us, here some ideas that We have implemented in order to get the most of our Video Editing computers. Get all the ram your money can buy and follow some of these helpful tips. Your experience may vary, but all of these directions are applied in our Systems, so give them a try. Here the basics:

2. Separate Mac OS from your regular files.
We created a 100 GB Partition for Mac OS X and other Applications. We move our iTunes, Aperture and iPhone Library to a different Partition in order to let the System does its job.The same way, We setup the Photoshop scratching Disk Option in other Partitions. iLife can have its files relocated to other disc too.

3. Kill all your Login Items

Don’t set Applications to start at your login session. It can slow your System response, if you need some applications to start at the same time, just make an AppleScript that opens them, place it at the Dock and a Click could open them immediately.

Remember to stop unused services like Printer Sharing, Web Sharing, File Sharing or iTunes Music Sharing, just turn on those that you really need and use.

4. Reset Open Firmware
Resetting your Firmware can help speed up your System. At the Startup screen press CMD+OPT+O+F, At the prompt type reset-all and then press return

5. Repair Ownership and Permissions
One of the most used tweak to speed up Mac OS X is to Repair Ownership and Permissions, it can be done using Disk Utility or using any other mac os x system utility (Cocktail, Mac Pilot, OnyX, DoktorKleanor, MacJanitor, Panther Cache Cleaner, Blacktree-Secrets and TinkerTool System).

6. Clean up your System Preferences
Check for old and corrupted preferences, use Spring Cleaning option from Onyx to get rid of those unused preferences.

7. Check your network preferences
Normally your System spend a few seconds looking for all your network connections, try to setup those that you really use, if you only have a wireless network, then you don’t need to have an ethernet based network setup available, uncheck it.

8. Your System: Localization

If English is your main Language, then you may not need to have Chinese or Russian version of your System installed. Get rid of all the Localized version of Mac OS that you don’t really use. You can save a lot of space and performance removing those Locatization and their respective versions for almost all your installed Applications. You can use Monolingual to clean them out. Just remove those unnecessary Locatizations. Get Monolingual here.Don’t remove anything from your System if you are not sure about what you are doing.

9. Kill the Dock Animation

Save a little resource killing the Dock animation for opening an Application and Magnification. You can use Onyx and TinkerTool to reduce even more the settings for the Dock.

10. Kill .dmg image and CD/DVD Verification
The .dmg image verification is a pain in the ass, why would you need to have an image verified when opening, if the image is damaged there is nothing you can do, the same thing happens when you burned a CD or DVD the System tries to verify an already burned media, but it doesn’t fix any problem if encountered. Kill these two waste of time and resources features using the Misc Tab on Ony.

11. Open With… Files
If you bring files from Windows to the mac chances are that those files get Preview as the Default application, one way to avoid opening a Photoshop file with Preview is to select the file, press Command+i for the Get Info of the selected file, then navigate down to the Open With section, select from the Tab the Application you want to open this kind of file from now on and click Change All.

12. Check your font files
You make have the System working with damaged or corrupted fonts, a regular check could help you improve your Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop performance. You may disable any font using Apple Font Book or having the Lynotype FontExplorer X application. This is a free download here. Lynotype FontExplorer X may helps you clean your Font Cache and check for those corrupted font installed.

13. Removing Mail Attachments

One Application that helps your System collects garbage is the Apple Mail, I am receiving more than 50 MB of Attachments from people sending you pdf files, fancy powerpoint presentations or even Youtube videos, you can save those important attachments into a folder located out of your System and then select the Message, use the Remove Attachments option from the Message Menu in Apple Mail, this could save you a few hundred megabytes a week.

14. Bluetooth not more
If you are not using Bluetooth, please help the System to work perfectly, the Bluetooth option ON consumes Mac OS X resources that you are not taking advantage of, it is a smart thing to turn it off, you may save performance and battery at the same time.

15. iTunes default
In a smart move by Apple the default place for iTunes is the iTunes Store, if you forget to change it when iTunes is updated then you may do it using Ony, make it points to your music library instead of the iTunes Store.

16. Stop Safari from opening PDF files
It is a mess much of the time, it spends a precious time trying to open the pdf file and you end up downloading it, go straight and get this *&^*^&*&* file into your Download, you can check first if the link you are clicking is a pdf file, if it is a pdf file, press CONTROL+CLICK over the link and choose Download the Linked File from the Contextual Menu or disable the opening option using Ony or Blacktree-Secrets.

17. Stop Spotlight from Reindexing your Disks.

Every update you make or Disk Utilities check your discs Spotlight tries to reindex them resulting in a performance punishment, you can avoid this reindexing telling Spotlight not to index your HD setting them in the Privacy Tab of the Spotlight Section in your System Preferences.

18. Mac OS X Sidebar
Speed up access to your Applications and files placing them into the Left Sidebar, just drop it and with a single click you can open them. It’s faster than placing them on the Dock and the Sidebar doesn’t have the unnecessary animations.

19. Thousands vs Millions of Colors
While the reduction from Millions of Colors to Thousands in your Display Preferences won’t help you get an ultra high performance, it may help a lot in computers with slower video card. This setting combined with other increases your mac performance speeding up the processes and tasks needed.

20. Screensavers – Desktop Background
Screen Savers are beautiful, elegants and give us joy, but sometimes they may screw our computer performance, I don’t remember the last time I use them in a daily basis, you don’t want to see any Screensaver while rendering a 3 hours film or recording a DVD for a client. Kill your screensavers and choose a refreshing monotone background image.

The real power behind Mac OS X is UNIX, so it’s natural that Mac OS X comes with the most useful commands that will let you control the whole system with a few keystrokes. Mac OS X shares the same level of control and restriction as UNIX. Here is a list of all commands for the Terminal.

alias
Create an alias

alloc List used and free memory
awk
Find and Replace text within file(s)

basename
Convert a full pathname to just a folder path

bash
Bourne-Again SHell (Linux)

bless
Set volume bootability and startup disk options.

break
Exit from a loop

cal
Display a calendar

case
Conditionally perform a command

cat
Display the contents of a file

cd
Change Directory

chflags
Change a file or folder’s flags.

chgrp
Change group ownership

chmod
Change access permissions

chown
Change file owner and group

chroot
Run a command with a different root directory

cksum
Print CRC checksum and byte counts

clear
Clear terminal screen

cmp
Compare two files

comm
Compare two sorted files line by line

complete
Edit a command completion [word/pattern/list]

continue
Resume the next iteration of a loop

cp
Copy one or more files to another location

cron
Daemon to execute scheduled commands

crontab
Schedule a command to run at a later date/time

cut
Divide a file into several parts

date
Display or change the date & time

dc
Desk Calculator

dd
Data Dump – Convert and copy a file

df
Display free disk space

diff
Display the differences between two files

diff3
Show differences among three files

dig
DNS lookup

dirname
Convert a full pathname to just a path

dirs
Display list of remembered directories

diskutil
Disk utilities – Format, Verify, Repair

ditto
Copy files and folders

dscl
Directory Service command line utility

du
Estimate file space usage

echo
Display message on screen

ed
A line-oriented text editor (edlin)

enable
Stop or start printers and classes.

env
Set environment and run a utility

eval
Evaluate several commands/arguments

exec
Execute a command

exit
Exit the shell

expect
Programmed dialogue with interactive programs

expand
Convert tabs to spaces

expr
Evaluate expressions

false
Do nothing, unsuccessfully

fdisk
Partition table manipulator for Darwin UFS/HFS/DOS

find
Search for files that meet a desired criteria

fmt
Reformat paragraph text

fold
Wrap text to fit a specified width

for
Expand words, and execute commands

foreach
Loop, expand words, and execute commands

fsck
Filesystem consistency check and repair

fsaclctl
Filesystem enable/disable ACL support

fs_usage
Filesystem usage (process/pathname)

ftp
Internet file transfer program

GetFileInfo
Get attributes of HFS+ files

getopt
Parse positional parameters

goto
Jump to label and continue execution

grep
Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern

groups
Print group names a user is in

gzip
Compress or decompress files

head
Display the first lines of a file

hdiutil
Manipulate iso disk images

history
Command History

hostname
Print or set system name

id
Print user and group names/id’s

if
Conditionally perform a command

info
Help info

install
Copy files and set attributes

jobs
List active jobs

join
Join lines on a common field

kill
Stop a process from running

l
List files in long format (ls -l)

ll
List files in long format, showing invisible files (ls -la)

less
Display output one screen at a time

ln
Make links between files (hard links, symbolic links)

locate
Find files

logname
Print current login name

login
log into the computer

logout
Exit a login shell (bye)

lpr
Print files

lprm
Remove jobs from the print queue

lpstat
Printer status information

ls
List information about file(s)

lsbom
List a bill of materials file

lsof
List open files

man
Help manual

mkdir
Create new folder(s)

mkfifo
Make FIFOs (named pipes)

more
Display output one screen at a time

mount
Mount a file system

mv
Move or rename files or directories

net
Manage network resources

nice
Set the priority of a command

nohup
Run a command immune to hangups

onintr
Control the action of a shell interrupt

open
Open a file/folder/URL/Application

osascript
Execute AppleScript

passwd
Modify a user password

paste
Merge lines of files

pbcopy
Copy data to the clipboard

pbpaste
Paste data from the Clipboard

pico
Simple text editor

ping
Test a network connection

pmset
Power Management settings

popd
Restore the previous value of the current directory

pr
Convert text files for printing

printenv
Print environment variables

printf
Format and print data

ps
Process status

pushd
Save and then change the current directory

pwd
Print Working Directory

quota
Display disk usage and limits

rcp
Copy files between machines.

repeat
Execute a command multiple times

rm
Remove files

rmdir
Remove folder(s)

rpm
Remote Package Manager

rsync
Remote file copy – Sync file tree (also RsyncX)

say
Convert text to audible speech

sched
Schedule a command to run at a later time.

screencapture
Capture screen image to file or disk

sdiff
Merge two files interactively

security
Administer Keychains, keys, certificates and the Security framework

sed
Stream Editor

set
Set a shell variable = value

setenv
Set an environment variable = value

setfile
Set attributes of HFS+ files

shift
Shift positional parameters

shutdown
Shutdown or restart OS X

sleep
Delay for a specified time

softwareupdate
System software update tool

sort
Sort text files

split
Split a file into fixed-size pieces

stop
Stop a job or process

su
Substitute user identity

sudo
Execute a command as another user

sum
Print a checksum for a file

switch
Conditionally perform a command

tail
Output the last part of files

tar
Tape ARchiver

tee
Redirect output to multiple files

test
Condition evaluation

textutil
Manipulate text files in various formats

time
Measure Program Resource Use

touch
Change file timestamps

traceroute
Trace Route to Host

tr
Translate, squeeze, and/or delete characters

true
Do nothing, successfully

tty
Print filename of terminal on stdin

type
Describe a command

umask
Users file creation mask

umount
Unmount a device

unalias
Remove an alias

uname
Print system information

unexpand
Convert spaces to tabs

uniq
Uniquify files

units
Convert units from one scale to another

unset
Remove variable or function names

unsetenv
Remove environment variable

users
Print login names of users currently logged in

uuencode
Encode a binary file

uudecode
Decode a file created by uuencode

vi
Text Editor

wc
Print byte, word, and line counts

where
Report all known instances of a command

which
Locate a program file in the user’s path

while
Execute commands

who
Print all usernames currently logged on

whoami
Print the current user id and name (`id -un’)

xargs
Execute utility – passing arguments

yes
Print a string until interrupted