How to open Terminal on Mac and use it

How to open Terminal on Mac

1. Press Command-Space to open Spotlight, type «Terminal» and press Return.
2. Or in Finder, choose Go › Utilities (Shift-Command-U) and double-click Terminal.

3. To keep Terminal at hand, Control-click its icon in the Dock and choose Options › Keep in Dock.

A window opens with a line ending in %. That’s the prompt: Terminal waits for a command there. A new window starts in your home folder.

Open Terminal at a folder

1. Open the folder in Finder. If you don’t see the path bar at the bottom of the window, choose View › Show Path Bar.

2. Control-click the folder’s name in the path bar and choose Open in Terminal.

Terminal opens a window that already works in that folder, so you don’t need to type its path.

Terminal also adds items to the Services menu, such as New Terminal Tab at Folder. If they don’t show up, turn them on in System Settings › Keyboard › Keyboard Shortcuts › Services.

How to use Mac Terminal: first commands

Type a command and press Return. The four commands below only show things or open a folder, they don’t change anything. Show the folder you are in:

List the files and folders in it:

Go into a folder, here Documents. cd .. goes one folder up, and cd on its own goes back home:

Open the current folder in Finder:

Press the Up Arrow to bring back an earlier command. Paste commands only from sources you trust: Terminal does what it’s told without asking, and rm deletes files past the Trash, with no undo.

How to stop a command or close Terminal

• To stop a command that is running, click its window and press Control-C. This stops most commands.
• To close one window’s session, type exit and press Return. If something is still running there, Terminal asks first.
• To quit Terminal, choose Terminal › Quit Terminal (Command-Q).