Terminal Mode in OS X Can Be Useful

[Jeff Campbell]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20070572-263.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=MacFixIt' target='_blank'>http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_...d&subj=MacFixIt</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"The OS X terminal is a powerful interface with your computer that can be used to script tasks, run under-the-hood routines on your system, remotely control other systems, and perform a number of other detailed and specific actions."</em></p><p><img height="500" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/at/auto/1307925495.usr105634.jpg" style="margin-left: 50px; margin-right: 50px;" width="500" /></p><p>Several good commands to help you troubleshoot your Mac from the Terminal. If you aren't familiar with Terminal, it's found in the Applications &gt; Utilities folder. Granted, you do have to be very careful in terminal mode, but if you are, there are several commands explained in this article that you may find useful, or you may in fact already be using them.&nbsp;</p>

[Joe Johaneman]

I'm one of those people that always has a terminal window open. I don't use Terminal.app though. I'm much more fond of iTerm 2.

Here's iTerm 2's list of features. (http://www.iterm2.com/#/section/features)

I use grep a lot. I do all of my writing in text format, so if I'm looking for something in specific I can find it quickly by grepping a bunch of text files. Personally, I believe grep is one of the most useful terminal commands once you learn how to use it. You can get more information at the terminal by typing:

man grep

The man command loads up the manual page for commands, so man grep will load up the manual page for grep.

Given that OS X is based on BSD, it seems a shame not to use the power that comes from the command line. :-)