🍏 macOS for developers

macOS uses zsh by default. Open Terminal (Applications → Utilities). Many Linux commands work the same; some come from BSD and take slightly different options.

echo $SHELL
sw_vers                 # macOS version and build
uname -m                # arm64 on Apple silicon, x86_64 on Intel
system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep -E 'Model Name|Chip|Memory'

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

Homebrew installs developer tools (git, python, node…). brew install adds a package, brew upgrade updates, brew list shows what is installed.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
brew install git python node
brew list --versions | head
brew upgrade
brew doctor

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

open launches files and apps from the terminal; pbcopy and pbpaste use the clipboard; mdfind searches like Spotlight.

open .                              # this folder in Finder
open -a "TextEdit" notes.txt
echo "copied from terminal" | pbcopy
pbpaste
mdfind -name "invoice" | head

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

Downloaded apps get a quarantine flag; Gatekeeper checks their signature. xattr shows extended attributes; chmod works as on Linux.

ls -l@ ~/Downloads/tool.zip
xattr -l ~/Downloads/tool.zip
spctl --assess --verbose /Applications/Safari.app
codesign -dv /Applications/Safari.app 2>&1 | grep Authority | head -2

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

ps and top work as on Linux; Activity Monitor is the graphical version. kill stops a process; killall stops by name.

ps aux | sort -nrk 3 | head -5        # top CPU users
top -l 1 -n 5 -o cpu | tail -6
pgrep -l Safari
killall -TERM "Preview"

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

macOS starts background jobs with launchd (instead of systemd or cron). A job is a .plist file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents; launchctl loads it.

cat > ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.gayagnan.backup.plist <<'EOF'
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<plist version="1.0"><dict>
  <key>Label</key><string>com.gayagnan.backup</string>
  <key>ProgramArguments</key><array><string>/Users/me/bin/backup.sh</string></array>
  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key><dict><key>Hour</key><integer>2</integer></dict>
</dict></plist>
EOF
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.gayagnan.backup.plist
launchctl list | grep gayagnan

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

Settings are stored in plist "domains". defaults read and write change them from the terminal; some need the app or Finder restarted.

defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true && killall Finder
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots
defaults read -g AppleInterfaceStyle   # prints Dark in dark mode

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

networksetup configures interfaces; scutil shows DNS; ifconfig and ping work as on Linux.

networksetup -listallhardwareports
ipconfig getifaddr en0
scutil --dns | grep nameserver | head -3
ping -c 3 gayagnan.com
curl -sI https://gayagnan.com | head -1

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

diskutil lists disks, checks and repairs volumes, and manages APFS containers. Erase commands destroy data: read before you run.

diskutil list
diskutil info / | grep -E 'File System|Free Space|Encrypted'
diskutil apfs list | head -20
df -h /

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

FileVault encrypts the disk; the keychain stores passwords and certificates; System Integrity Protection guards system files.

fdesetup status
csrutil status
security find-generic-password -s "Wi-Fi" -a "MyNetwork" -w   # asks for permission
security list-keychains

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

xcode-select installs compilers (clang, git, make). swift and swiftc compile Swift; xcrun finds the right tool for each SDK.

xcode-select --install
clang --version | head -1
xcrun --show-sdk-path
echo 'print("Hello from Swift on macOS")' > hello.swift && swift hello.swift

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.

tmutil controls Time Machine: start a backup, list snapshots, restore files. Local APFS snapshots allow quick rollbacks.

tmutil status
tmutil startbackup --auto
tmutil listbackups | tail -3
tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

🖥️ Run this on a Mac. The output depends on your machine, so no sample output is shown.