To enable hidden files/folders in finder windows:

1. Open Finder
2. Open the Utilities folder
3. Open a terminal window
4. Copy and paste the following line in
   defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

   1	defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

5. Press return
6. Now hold ‘alt’ on the keyboard and right click on the Finder icon
7. Click on Relaunch

You should find you will now be able to see any hidden files or folders. To revert:

Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop

Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop

Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop

Sometimes you just need to clear your history in Terminal. It’s actually pretty easy to do.

If you’d rather not have your history saved to a file at all, add the following line to your ~/.bash_profile:

This way, your command history is limited to only those commands you used during the current session. More information and options can be found on the bash man page

To clear DNS cache in Leopard, use the following command:

Chances are good that you’re already familiar with apt-get, a command which uses the “advanced package tool” to interact with the operating system’s underlying package system. The most relevant and useful commands are, (to be run as root):

This command installs the package(s) specified, along with any dependencies.

This command removes the package(s) specified, but does not remove dependencies.

I have XAMPP setup on my Mac. Getting MySQL and PHP to run in terminal didn’t work after installation. To be able to run mysql and php you have to add the xampp application to the .bash_profile file in your users home directory.

To check that it has worked, open a new terminal session and type in:

Both should point to /Applications/xampp/xamppfiles

Having some basic knowledge of SSH and Unix commands is very useful. Developed in 1995, SSH (Secure Shell) was created as a secure alternative to Telnet. Telnet is a protocol allowing for command line access to a Unix, Linux or FreeBSD based remote computer. I’ve listed some basic commands to get you familiar with them.

The cd command is used to move to a specific directory.

The cp command will copy the file or folder from the source, to the destination.