Any cool Terminal tips or tricks out there?

Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
Has anybody discovered any cool things that can be done in the Terminal? I really want to start playing around with it and learning some useful things that will enhance my user experience.





Thanks
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 25
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    i got one, think of a command, like say "apachectl". far too long to type out regularly. now, pop into terminal, type "apa" then hit <tab>. Several modern shells, like bash tcsh csh zsh, will fill out a command (or file name) if you start to write it. in fact, they'll fill out a command or file name if you don't even start to write it. pop into terminal, and just type tab. depending on your shell and environment, it will probably throw a large list of files in the current directory, and/or all your programs.



    another trick, which you may have already noticed, in csh and tcsh and derivatives, is if you misspell a command, it will try to correct you. example, type "bill gates". it will ask you "kill gates?", because bill is not a known command, but kill is.
  • Reply 2 of 25
    While not strictly a "terminal trick", a lot of people enjoy this one:



    telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl



    Just sit back and watch.
  • Reply 3 of 25
    emacs -batch -l dunnet



    hours of commodore 64 fun
  • Reply 4 of 25
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Brad

    While not strictly a "terminal trick", a lot of people enjoy this one:



    telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl



    Just sit back and watch.




  • Reply 5 of 25
    WOW INDEED! I WANT MORE!!!



    All I want to be is a Unix geek!:-)
  • Reply 6 of 25
    sroachsroach Posts: 105member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    emacs -batch -l dunnet



    hours of commodore 64 fun






    To bad it's not Zork .. that was a fun game..
  • Reply 7 of 25
    hey can you pick that f****** shovel or what ?!?!?!



    (yeah, not too busy at work today)







    edit: that is actually a reference to superkarate monkeydeathcar's post.
  • Reply 8 of 25
    zozo Posts: 3,117member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by superkarate monkeydeathcar

    emacs -batch -l dunnet



    hours of commodore 64 fun




    Code:




    E/W Dirt road

    You are on the continuation of a dirt road. There are more trees on

    both sides of you. The road continues to the east and west.

    There is a large boulder here.

    >dig hole

    Digging here reveals nothing.

    >go west

    Dead end

    >dig hole

    Digging here reveals nothing.

    >go east

    E/W Dirt road

    There is a large boulder here.

    >move boulder

    I don't understand that.

    >kick boulder

    I don't understand that.

    >hit boulder

    I don't understand that.

    >eat boulder

    You don't have that.

    >inventory

    You currently have:

    A lamp

    A shovel

    >go east

    Fork

    You are at a fork of two passages, one to the northeast, and one to the

    southeast. The ground here seems very soft. You can also go back west.

    >dig hole

    I think you found something.

    >inventory

    You currently have:

    A lamp

    A shovel

    >look

    Fork

    You are at a fork of two passages, one to the northeast, and one to the

    southeast. The ground here seems very soft. You can also go back west.

    There is a CPU card here.

    >take CPU card

    Taken.

    >look at CPU card

    The CPU board has a VAX chip on it. It seems to have

    2 Megabytes of RAM onboard.

    >eat CPU card

    You forcefully shove a computer board down your throat, and start choking.



    You are dead.

    You have scored 0 out of a possible 90 points.









    ROFLMAO





    this is my first time playing... and I choked on a friggen CPU... waaaay to go Zo!
  • Reply 9 of 25
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by piwozniak

    hey can you pick that f****** shovel or what ?!?!?!



    (yeah, not too busy at work today)







    edit: that is actually a reference to superkarate monkeydeathcar's post.




    Yeah, I know! The only challenge in this game is guessing how the computer wants you to type it!
  • Reply 10 of 25
    my only advice at playing the game is to look at everything. looking is very important.
  • Reply 11 of 25
    you can also *examine* things, but you know how you get close to a building, how do walk in?
  • Reply 12 of 25
    Quote:

    Originally posted by piwozniak

    you can also *examine* things, but you know how you get close to a building, how do walk in?



    enter building
  • Reply 13 of 25
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    pretty cool, but its no hitchhiker's guide. by the by, is there still a version of the ol' hitchhiker's guide game around?



    Quote:

    There is a ferocious bear here!

    >examine bear

    It looks liek a grizzly to me.



  • Reply 14 of 25
    bears like food.



    now, what do i do in tha building, i guess something with that ancient computer, and that card but how do you install it?



    This is fun
  • Reply 15 of 25
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Well, here's what I did.



    1. Took the shovel.

    2. Dug up the CPU card

    3. Found some food

    4. Fed the food to the bear

    5. Found the key

    6. Opened door to the building

    7. Found three names on the mail bins (Jeffrey Collier, Robert Toukmand and Thomas Stock)

    8. Installed the CPU card into the computer

    9. Now what?
  • Reply 16 of 25
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Another thing:



    1. Type "emacs"

    2. Hit F10

    3. Select "tools" by pressing "t"

    4. Select "games" by pressing "g"

    5. You get a list of games. Including worm and tetris. Pretty cool!
  • Reply 17 of 25
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    Well, here's what I did.



    1. Took the shovel.

    2. Dug up the CPU card

    3. Found some food

    4. Fed the food to the bear

    5. Found the key

    6. Opened door to the building

    7. Found three names on the mail bins (Jeffrey Collier, Robert Toukmand and Thomas Stock)

    8. Installed the CPU card into the computer

    9. Now what?




    HOW did you installed it?



    oh the magic word is PUT



    Luca: login
  • Reply 18 of 25
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    Just realized that F10 won't work with Panther users (Exposé). I have Panther at home but right now I'm in a lab on a Mac running Jaguar.



    So instead of typing F10 to access the menu in Emacs, use the escape key and the ` key instead. Typed in sequence they do the same thing.
  • Reply 19 of 25
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by piwozniak

    HOW did you installed it?



    insert card in computer
  • Reply 20 of 25
    baumanbauman Posts: 1,248member
    where in the world do you find the password?
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