Get started with Terminal on Mac (2024)

FAQs

How do I get terminal to work on my Mac? ›

Click the Launchpad icon in the Dock, type Terminal in the search field, then click Terminal. In the Finder , open the /Applications/Utilities folder, then double-click Terminal.

Terminal is an app for advanced users and developers that lets you communicate with the Mac operating system using a command line interface (CLI). You enter commands and scripts (called shell scripts) to perform tasks on your Mac. When you open Terminal, you see a simple window with a command line prompt.

To open Terminal on your Mac, you can search “terminal” in Spotlight as shown in Figure 2 or navigate through Applications > Utilities > Terminal. Once you launch the app, a small window with a command prompt will appear; this is the powerful command line (Figure 3).

mac - "command + t" will open a new terminal window.

To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and press Return to execute. Every command consists of three elements: the command itself, an argument that tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output.

If you can type commands, but nothing happens when you press RETURN, try pressing LINE FEED or typing CTRL-J. If this works, your terminal needs to be reset to fix the RETURN key. Some systems have a reset command that you can run by typing CTRL-J reset CTRL-J.

Open the terminal by selecting View > Terminal from the menu bar, or by pressing the Ctrl+` keyboard shortcut. Based on your operating system configuration, the terminal opens with a default shell like Bash, PowerShell, or Zsh. The shell's working directory starts at the root of the workspace folder.

A terminal is essentially a text-based user interface for interacting with computers. It allows users to execute commands and view the results, as well as control applications running on the computer.

The terminal is a command-line interface that allows you to interact with your computer through text-based commands. It provides a way to run programs, navigate through files and directories, manage processes, and perform various other tasks.

What is the advantage of using Terminal? ›

It's the way of the server

You might have a nice desktop environment that gives you ability to use the GUI to configure your system. But the minute you need to work on a server, it's SSH in the terminal. Having a terminal-first workflow makes working on a server much more comfortable and easier.

Command (or Cmd) ⌘

sudo stands for superuser do. The following example works on computers with macOS installed, so don't run it unless you want to restart your computer: % sudo shutdown. You're asked for the password of the current user. Only administrator users can use sudo .

Click on the small magnifying glass icon at the top-right corner of your Mac or press Command + Space keys at the same time to launch Spotlight. Then you can type in "Terminal" and double-click the appeared Terminal.