Downloads for Apple Developers
https://developer.apple.com/download/more/
Keyboard Shortcuts
There are many useful keyboard shortcuts that I've come across over time, and I try to include them here so they don't get forgotten.
Open Finder
OPTION + COMMAND + SPACE
Open Spotlight
COMMAND + SPACE
Maximize window
COMMAND + TAB to highlight the minimized window you want to maximize.
Before releasing the COMMAND button, hit the OPTION button (ALT on a windows keyboard).
Resource: https://superuser.com/questions/196141/keyboard-shortcut-to-unhide-or-unminimize-a-window-in-os-x
Put mac to sleep
OPTION + COMMAND + POWER
Put display to sleep
CTRL + SHIFT + POWER
Resource: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236
Jump to URL bar in Chrome
COMMAND + L
Resource:
https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/11573/chrome-keyboard-shortcut-to-go-to-address-bar
Show hidden files and folders in Finder
CMD + SHIFT + .
Resource:
https://ianlunn.co.uk/articles/quickly-showhide-hidden-files-mac-os-x-mavericks/
Go to folder in Finder
CMD + SHIFT + G
Resource:
https://blog.bejarano.io/fixing-cron-jobs-in-mojave.html
Lock Screen
CTRL + CMD + Q
Mirror display (or stop mirroring)
CMD + F1
OSX Terminal Stuff
Highlight text
Hold OPTION + COMMAND and select the text you want with your mouse.
SSH
Check ssh service status
sudo systemsetup -getremotelogin
Enable SSH
sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on
Disable SSH
sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin off
Resource: http://osxdaily.com/2016/08/16/enable-ssh-mac-command-line/
Disable screensharing
sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.screensharing.plist
Create account
sudo dscl . -create /Users/niceuser
sudo dscl . -create /Users/niceuser UserShell /bin/bash
sudo dscl . -create /Users/niceuser RealName "Super Nice Guy"
sudo dscl . -create /Users/niceuser UniqueID *unique id*
sudo dscl . -create /Users/niceuser PrimaryGroupID 80 # Make user part of Admin group
sudo dscl . -passwd /Users/niceuser
sudo dscl . -append /Groups/admin GroupMembership niceuser
You can create a home directory for the user if you'd like as well:
sudo mkdir /Users/niceuser
Resources:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/add-user-terminal-mac-os-x-screen-sharing-31846.html
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8248721
Remove account
sudo dscl . -delete /Users/niceuser
Delete the home directory if you created it:
sudo rm -rf /Users/niceuser
Resource: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/310308/delete-a-standard-user-from-mac-os
List users
sudo dscl . list /Users | grep -v "^_"
Take screenshot
Output to /var/tmp/.tmp
screencapture -x /var/tmp/.tmp
Get version of OSX Running
sw_vers -productVersion
Resource: https://www.tecmint.com/send-a-message-to-logged-users-in-linux-terminal/
Mount NFS share
sudo mkdir /mnt/name_of_system_folder
sudo mount -t nfs -o rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,hard,tcp,locallocks,rdirplus,readahead=128 system.com:<path to volume mount> /mnt/name_of_system_folder
Resources:
https://care.qumulo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115008111268-Recommended-NFS-Mount-Options
https://willhaley.com/blog/mount-nfs-share-on-a-mac/
Unmount NFS share
sudo umount -Af -t nfs,smbfs
Resources:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/292043/how-to-unmount-nfs-when-server-is-gone
https://superuser.com/questions/249611/how-to-forceably-unmount-stuck-network-share-in-mac-os-x
Automount an NFS share in /Volumes
https://gist.github.com/L422Y/8697518
SSHFS
Install:
brew cask install osxfuse
brew install sshfs
Mount remote system:
mkdir /mnt/remote_system
cd /mnt/remote_system
sudo sshfs -o allow_other,defer_permissions user@remote_system.com:/ /mnt/remote_system
Resources:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh
https://howchoo.com/g/ymmxmzlmndb/how-to-install-sshfs
Creating plist files
Plist files can be used as an alternative to cron jobs. This specific example will run even if there are no users logged in.
This particular one will run a python script, not_evil.py every day at 3 am.
Create /Library/LaunchDaemons/job.plist with this content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>not.an.evil.job</string>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/Users/notabackdooruser/not_evil.py</string>
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>/Users/notabackdooruser/</string>
<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
<key>Hour</key>
<integer>3</integer>
<key>Minute</key>
<integer>0</integer>
</dict>
<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
<dict>
<key>http_proxy</key>
<string>http://companyproxy.com:80</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>
Make sure the file is owned by root (sudo chown root job.plist) and that wheel is set for the group (sudo chgrp wheel job.plist).
To load the file to the running daemons, run:
sudo launchctl load job.plist
To remove the file from the running daemons, run:
sudo launchctl unload job.plist
Another example
This will run the a bash script in the context of a specific user every minute. It will output the results to /tmp/test.out or /tmp/test.err if there is an error in running the command.
To start, navigate to ~/Library/LaunchAgents and put this in a file called com.yourusername.crontabtest.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
<dict>
<key>PATH</key>
<string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:</string>
</dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>net.yourusername.task</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>bash</string>
<string>-c</string>
<string>/Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/bashscript.sh</string>
</array>
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>60</integer>
<key>StandardOutPath</key>
<string>/Users/yourusername/brew-output.txt</string>
<key>StandardErrorPath</key>
<string>/Users/yourusername/brew-errors.txt</string>
</dict>
</plist>
Follow this by adding the bash script to /Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/bashscript.sh and running chmod +x on it.
With the plist and script in place, you can enable it with:
launchctl load com.yourusername.crontabtest.plist
and disable it with:
launchctl unload com.yourusername.crontabtest.plist
Resources:
https://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-osx-startup-crontab-launchd-jobs
https://medium.com/@chetcorcos/a-simple-launchd-tutorial-9fecfcf2dbb3
View logs
If you're having trouble getting your plist to work, run this to see the logs:
tail -f /var/log/system.log
Then in another tab or window, unload and load the plist:
launchctl unload -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourusername.bashscript.plist
launchctl load -w ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourusername.bashscript.plist
Resource: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1370901/very-simple-launchd-plist-not-running-my-script
Run bash script on startup
~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.yourusername.bashscript.plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>EnvironmentVariables</key>
<dict>
<key>PATH</key>
<string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:</string>
</dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>com.yourusername.bashscript</string>
<key>Program</key>
<string>/Users/yourusername/Library/LaunchAgents/bashscript.sh</string>
<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
</dict>
</plist>
Run every 6 hours
<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>21600</integer>
Resource: https://www.maketecheasier.com/use-launchd-run-scripts-on-schedule-macos/
Screen sharing via finder
- Open Finder
- Ctrl-k
- vnc://target_ip
Resource: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20100927085636535
Permission denied for creating cronjobs
- Give Full Disk Access to iterm (if you're using it) or terminal via these instructions
- Relaunch the terminal and run this command to test if the issue has been resolved:
ls ~/Library/Messages
Resources:
https://serverfault.com/questions/954586/osx-mojave-crontab-tmp-tmp-x-operation-not-permitted
http://osxdaily.com/2018/10/09/fix-operation-not-permitted-terminal-error-macos/
You may need to do this bit of horribleness as well (obviously not ideal from a security standpoint):
https://blog.bejarano.io/fixing-cron-jobs-in-mojave.html
Store SSH Key in Keychain
ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/[your-private-key]
Get CPU thread count
sysctl -a | grep cpu.thread_count | egrep -o '(\d+)'
Brew Notes
Install specific version of package
You can install a specific version of a package using @. For example, to install golang 1.12:
brew install go@1.12
Switch to another version of a package
brew install terraform@0.12
cp -rf /usr/local/Cellar/terraform@0.12/0.12.29 usr/local/Cellar/terraform/.
brew switch terraform 0.12.29
Update script
brew update; brew upgrade; brew cleanup
Run Software Update via CLI
Update all
softwareupdate -i -a
Resource: https://www.jamf.com/jamf-nation/discussions/30828/softwareupdate-l-no-updates-found
Brewfile
Generate Brewfile with existing packages
brew bundle dump
Resource: https://www.caseyliss.com/2019/10/8/brew-bundle
Show reason for reboot
log show --predicate 'eventMessage contains "Previous shutdown cause"' --last 24h
Kill all chrome processes
killall Google\ Chrome
Resource: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/158684/chrome-wont-quit-mac-yosemite
Capture output of running process
This would call for something like strace in linux, which is not available in OSX. Instead, we use dtrace:
capture() {
sudo dtrace -p "$1" -qn '
syscall::write*:entry
/pid == $target && arg0 == 1/ {
printf("%s", copyinstr(arg1, arg2));
}
'
}
Get SHA-256 hash of an application
shasum -a 256 <path to binary>
# For example, to get the SHA-256 of the Chromium binary:
shasum -a 256 /Applications/Chromium.app/Contents/MacOS/Chromium
Fix Alt key in iterm
This is a great tutorial that covers the proces in depth:
https://dev.to/clairecodes/making-the-alt-key-work-in-iterm2-1aa9