How can you learn about all those mysterious Terminal commands , such aslsorcd ? Is it some kind of arcane knowledge , handed down only to initiates after grueling initiations ? Well , no . really , anyone can learn about Terminal command , if they know where to look .
How to use the commands manual
The key to Terminal sapience is themancommand . It summons manual ( orman ) page for almost any command ; they ’re the equivalent of a assistant system for the instruction course . In fact , manitself is a command , whose role is to format and exhibit this documentation .
First , establish Terminal ( in your /Applications / Utilities leaflet ) . Then , if you typeman pwd , for example , Terminal will expose the humans pageboy for thepwdcommand .
Allmanpages have a common format . They begin withname(the name of the bid ) and a brief description of what it does . Thepwdcommand I looked at above shows the following :
pwd – return function directory name
Next comessynopsis , which shows the command selection , or flags , that you may use with it . Forpwd , there are two options:-Land - P. These option are explained in thedescriptionsection :
As you could see here , each of the two options is explained , and a final sentence tells you that the command assumes that the - Loption is desired if no other option ( and there ’s only one ) is qualify .
As you mould from the command line , you ’ll find that reading up on the option uncommitted for dissimilar commands is really important . You ’ll discover the myriad ways you may use these tools , and somemanpages also carry example to help you sympathize them .
How to scroll through man pages
When you look at amanpage , you do so in Terminal through another command , yell apager ; by default , this is thelesscommand . What a pager mastery does is admit you to watch content in Terminal page by Sir Frederick Handley Page , or argumentation by line . When you ’re viewing amanpage , you will most often not see the total pageboy at once . You ’ll need to page down to see more .
There are two ways to do this withless :
Try it on your Mac : Open Terminal , typeman ls , then squeeze Return . Thelscommand’smanpage is quite long , and you ’ll need to squeeze the spacebar several times to get to the bottom .
Sometimes , when you ’re viewing amanpage , you call for to go back up and look at something that ’s no longer visible . Depending on your Terminal setting , you may be able to scroll the Terminal windowpane . If not , press Control - B to go back a Thomas Nelson Page , and the spacebar , or Control - F , to go forward a Sir Frederick Handley Page .
When you get to the end of amanpage , you ’ll see this:(END ) . You ’ll notice that you ca n’t do anything at that item ; you demand to quit thelesscommand ; do this by weigh theQkey .
Other ways to read man pages
If you do n’t need to readmanpages in Terminal , there are other ways to view this mental object . you’re able to findmanpages on the vane . Just typemanand the name of a command into your favorite search engine , and you ’ll get plenty of hits . Apple has a certification repository withmanpageshere . you could click Alphabetic Index to get a list of all command , then search for the one you want . Apple’smanpages are useful because a popup card near the top of the page countenance you choose an OS 10 version , so if you need to see themanpage for an old version of OS X , you could do so .
No matter which road you select , manpages enter the room access to a gold mine of information about the command line . Use them and you ’ll ascertain all the ins and outs of the commands you use .
