macOS Commands & Tools Cheatsheet

This repository contains a collection of macOS commands and tools that I’ve found particularly useful. I have grouped this into categories for easy reference.

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Contents

• Managing Files
• Software Management
• Process Management
• System Management
• Network Management
• Command Line Tools

Managing Files

# Opens files or folders using the default application.
open <file/folder>

# Enhanced copy command that preserves file attributes and can copy directories recursively.
ditto <source> <destination>

# Copies the output of a command to the clipboard.
<command> | pbcopy

Software Management

# Checks for the latest available software updates.
softwareupdate -l

# Installs all available software updates and restarts the system after installation.
softwareupdate -iaR

Process Management

# List open Internet sockets with:
# - Numeric port numbers (-P) instead of service names
# - Numeric IP addresses (-n) instead of resolving hostnames
# - Network-related files and connections (-i)
lsof -P -i -n

# List open Internet sockets (-i) with numeric addresses (-n) and port numbers (-P)
# Extract only the first column (process names) using cut
# Remove duplicate entries with uniq
lsof -P -i -n | cut -f 1 -d " " | uniq

System Management

# Displays software version information.
sw_vers

# Displays available data types that can be queried using the system_profiler command.
system_profiler -listDataTypes

# Displays detailed system information including software and hardware details.
system_profiler SPSoftwareDataType SPHardwareDataType

# Displays detailed system security information (requires sudo privileges).
sudo /usr/libexec/mdmclient QuerySecurityInfo

# Displays detailed system device information (requires sudo privileges).
sudo /usr/libexec/mdmclient QueryDeviceInformation

# Prevents the Mac from sleeping for as long as the command is running.
caffeinate

# Configures sudo to use Touch ID for authentication.
sudo touch id

⬆ ʀᴇᴛᴜʀɴ ᴛᴏ ᴄᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛꜱ

Network Management

# Display network interface configuration, including IP addresses and status.
ifconfig

# Display the current IP address assigned to the network interface
ipconfig getifaddr en0

# Flush the DNS cache to clear any stored domain name resolutions
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache

# Restart the mDNSResponder service to apply the DNS cache flush
sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

# Display the upload and download speed of the network connection.
networkQuality

# Display real-time network activity for all connections
nettop

# Display real-time network routing table information
nettop -m route

# Show real-time network activity filtered to Wi-Fi connections only
nettop -t wifi

# Show real-time network activity filtered to wired (Ethernet) connections only
nettop -t wired

# Show real-time network activity for TCP connections only
nettop -m tcp

# Show real-time network activity for UDP connections only
nettop -m udp

# Retrieve saved Wi-Fi passwords for a specified network (requires password entry).
security find-generic-password -wa <WiFi_SSID>

Command Line Tools

• iTerm2: A terminal emulator for macOS.
• Homebrew: The missing package manager for macOS.
• OhMyZsh: Oh My Zsh is a framework for managing your Zsh configuration.