Macos Man Pages Location
Related macOS commands: grep - Search file(s) for lines that match a given pattern. Ln - Make links between files (hard links, symbolic links). Ls - List information about file(s). Locate - Find files. Mdfind - Spotlight search. Rm - Remove files. Whereis - Locate a command. Which - Locate a program file in the user's path. Change the default location for screenshots. If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal. Defaults write com.apple.screencapture location path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved Hit Return. Killall SystemUIServer. This document is a Mac OS X manual page. Manual pages are a command-line technology for providing documentation. You can view these manual pages locally using the man(1) command. These manual pages come from many different sources, and thus, have a variety of writing styles. You can open man pages in a single, scrollable window from Terminal's Help menu. Just type the command into the search field in the Help menu, then click the command in the search results to open its man page. It may occasionally take a few seconds for the command to appear in the search results. Man Page Completions. 2.1.1, released September 26, 2014 (tarball - note that there are known issues on macOS) 2.1.0, released November 1, 2013.
The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because you’re used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks — it’s usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, you’ll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once you’ve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Mac’s command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
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How to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
You’ll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you don’t like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
If Terminal feels complicated or you have issues with the set-up, let us tell you right away that there are alternatives. MacPilot allows to get access to over 1,200 macOS features without memorizing any commands. Basically, a third-party Terminal for Mac that acts like Finder.
For Mac monitoring features, try iStat Menus. The app collects data like CPU load, disk activity, network usage, and more — all of which accessible from your menu bar.
Basic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, it’s worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Let’s try it.
Type cd ~/Documentsthen and press Return to navigate to your Home folder.
Type lsthen Return (you type Return after every command).
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder — ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when you’re typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when you’re copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You can’t use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command that’s already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you don’t specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Here’s another example. This time, we’ll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
Open a Finder window and navigate to your Documents folder.
Type cd and drag the Documents folder onto the Terminal window.
Now, type mkdir 'TerminalTest'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
cd~/Documents/Terminal Test
mv TerminalTestFile TerminalTestFile2.rtf
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, you’d keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
mv ~/Documents/TerminalTest TerminalTestFile.rtf ~/Documents/TerminalTest2 TerminalTestFile.rtf
More advanced Terminal commands
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that aren’t accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
In a Terminal window, type ditto [folder 1] [folder 1] where 'folder 1' is the folder that hosts the files and 'folder 2' is the folder you want to move them to.
To see the files being copied in the Terminal window, type -v after the command.
Download files from the internet
You’ll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
cd ~/Downloads/
curl -O [URL of file you want to download]
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved]
Hit Return
killall SystemUIServer
Hit Return
Change the default file type for screenshots
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. To change that to .jpg, do this:
defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
Press Return
killall SystemUIServer
Press Return
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' you’d use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesn’t mean you should. It’s a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up space
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, it’s far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space you’ll save. And once you’ve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like it’s difficult to use, it really isn’t. The key is learning a few commands, such as those we’ve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, it’s a powerful tool that has deep access to your Mac’s system files. Check commands by googling them if you’re not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. It’s much safer!
Macos Man Pages Locations
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Prolog
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of thisinterface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.Name
lp - send files to a printerSynopsis
lp [-c][-ddest][-ncopies][-msw][-ooption]... [-ttitle][file...]
Description
The lp utility shall copy the input files to an output destination in an unspecified manner. The default output destination should be to a hardcopydevice, such as a printer or microfilm recorder, that produces non-volatile, human-readable documents. If such a device is not available to the application, orif the system provides no such device, the lp utility shall exit with a non-zero exit status.
The actual writing to the output device may occur some time after the lp utility successfully exits. During the portion of the writing thatcorresponds to each input file, the implementation shall guarantee exclusive access to the device.
Pages Macos Big Sur
The lp utility shall associate a unique request ID with each request.
Normally, a banner page is produced to separate and identify each print job. This page may be suppressed by implementation-defined conditions, such as anoperator command or one of the -ooption values.
Options
The lp utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.
The following options shall be supported:
- -m
- Send mail (see mailx ) after the files have been printed. By default, no mail is sent upon normal completion of the print request.
- -n copies
- Write copies number of copies of the files, where copies is a positive decimal integer. The methods for producing multiple copies and forarranging the multiple copies when multiple file operands are used are unspecified, except that each file shall be output as an integral whole, notinterleaved with portions of other files.
- -o option
- Specify printer-dependent or class-dependent options. Several such options may be collected by specifying the -o option more thanonce.
- -s
- Suppress messages from lp.
- -t title
- Write title on the banner page of the output.
- -w
- Write a message on the user's terminal after the files have been printed. If the user is not logged in, then mail shall be sent instead.
Operands
Macos Man Pages
The following operand shall be supported:
- , the standard input shall be used.If a file operand is used, but the -c option is not specified, the process performing the writing to the output device may have user and grouppermissions that differ from that of the process invoking lp.
Stdin
The standard input shall be used only if no file operands are specified, or if a file operand is '-' . See the INPUT FILES section.
Input Files
The input files shall be text files.
Environment Variables
The following environment variables shall affect the execution of lp:
- >0
- No output device was available, or an error occurred.
Consequences of Errors
Default.
The following sections are informative.
Application Usage
The pr and fold utilities can be used to achieve reasonable formatting for the implementation's default page size.
A conforming application can use one of the file operands only with the -c option or if the file is publicly readable and guaranteed to beavailable at the time of printing. This is because IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 gives the implementation the freedom to queue up the request for printing at some latertime by a different process that might not be able to access the file.
Examples
- -ddest, LPDEST, or PRINTER are used, however.)
- *
- A requirement for multiple printers
- *
- Options for supporting various page-description languages
This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 is worded such that a 'print job' consisting of multiple input files, possibly in multiple copies, is guaranteed toprint so that any one file is not intermixed with another, but there is no statement that all the files or copies have to print out together.
The -c option may imply a spooling operation, but this is not required. The utility can be implemented to wait until the printer is ready and thenwait until it is finished. Because of that, there is no attempt to define a queuing mechanism (priorities, classes of output, and so on).
On some historical systems, the request ID reported on the STDOUT can be used to later cancel or find the status of a request using utilities not defined inthis volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.
Although the historical System V lp and BSD lpr utilities have provided similar functionality, they used different names for the environmentvariable specifying the destination printer. Since the name of the utility here is lp, LPDEST (used by the System V lp utility) was givenprecedence over PRINTER (used by the BSD lpr utility). Since environments of users frequently contain one or the other environment variable, thelp utility is required to recognize both. If this was not done, many applications would send output to unexpected output devices when users moved fromsystem to system.
Some have commented that lp has far too little functionality to make it worthwhile. Requests have proposed additional options or operands or boththat added functionality. The requests included:
Given that a compliant system is not required to even have a printer, placing further restrictions upon the behavior of the printer is not useful. Sincehardcopy format is so application-dependent, it is difficult, if not impossible, to select a reasonable subset of functionality that should be required on allcompliant systems.
The term unspecified is used in this section in lieu of implementation-defined as most known implementations would not be able to makedefinitive statements in their conformance documents; the existence and usage of printers is very dependent on how the system administrator configures eachindividual system.
Since the default destination, device type, queuing mechanisms, and acceptable forms of input are all unspecified, usage guidelines for what a conformingapplication can do are as follows:
- pr and fold utilities can be used to achieve reasonable formatting for the defaultpage size of the implementation.
Alternatively, the application can arrange its installation in such a way that it requires the system administrator or operator to provide the appropriateinformation on lp options and environment variable values.
At a minimum, having this utility in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 tells the industry that conforming applications require a means to print output andprovides at least a command name and LPDEST routing mechanism that can be used for discussions between vendors, application writers, and users. The useof 'should' in the DESCRIPTION of lp clearly shows the intent of the standard developers, even if they cannot mandate that all systems (such as laptops)have printers.
This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not specify what the ownership of the process performing the writing to the output device may be. If -c isnot used, it is unspecified whether the process performing the writing to the output device has permission to read file if there are any restrictions inplace on who may read file until after it is printed. Also, if -c is not used, the results of deleting file before it is printed areunspecified.
Future Directions
None.
See Also
mailx