Interesting and fun commands for the Mac Terminal

The terminal in Mac OS X and macOS on the Apple computer is probably one of the programs that is used the least by the average consumer. Some don't want to go wrong with it; others may find that they are still in control of the Mac and can therefore ignore the Mac Terminal and commands for it. However, there are also commands for the command line that are not necessarily related to system improvement or troubleshooting, but are simply interesting or amusing. A few interesting and fun commands for Mac Port I have summarized you here.

Call up the terminal: this is how it works

If you haven't used the terminal before or just don't know how to access it, just follow one of these instructions:

1. press cmd + spacebar to Spotlight to invoke; in this Port and press Enter
2. desk or Finder choose; Select "Utilities" from the "Go" menu and open the terminal in the appropriate window
3. Call up the "Launchpad" in the dock and select the terminal in "Utilities" (or another named app group)

Watch the typed film: "Star Wars: Episode IV"

You always wanted Star Wars IV - A New Hope (old title: "war of stars“) Look in a version reduced to the optical minimum? Then simply use the terminal on the Apple Mac for this. Depending on the operating system, there are two commands that you have to enter and confirm with Enter before the film is played in terminal symbols.

• Command up to Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan:
  telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl
• Command from macOS 10.12 Sierra:
  nc towel.blinkenlights.nl 23

Incidentally, that works too under Windows ;)

Play (minimalist) games

Do you like retro gaming and enjoy games like Tetris, Pong, Snake, Solitaire and Co.? Then after your trip to a galaxy far, far away, you can play it on your Mac, iMac or MacBook. To do this, simply call up the terminal and use the following inputs to call up the games:

1. emacs enter
2. Enter to press
3. I to press
4. x and enter the game name (see below)
5. Enter to press

You can choose from the following games (to call up, enter the name after the "x" as shown below):

• tetris
• pong
• snake
• click here.
• 5 × 5
• landmark
• doctor

Let the Mac do the talking

Since Siri was integrated in macOS, it is actually no longer necessary to select the terminal for speech output for fun applications:

But if you want to include the command line in your script or want to trigger the voice output of a long, typed text, you only need to put a word in front of the terminal: say. So if your Mac should say "Hello", read a text to you or convert text into speech for another purpose, then write in the terminal: 

say

Set the message on the login window

Whether you're playing a prank on someone or want to set your contact details in case you lose your MacBook - the custom text on the macOS login screen is an interesting thing. How to set the text without the terminal, I have shown you here: Set lock screen / login window message on Mac. In the terminal it works as follows:

1. Open Mac Terminal
2. Enter that: sudo write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText 
3. Press the space bar and enter your own text
4. Press enter

Show hidden files and folders in the Finder

Admittedly, in the time in which you call up the terminal for the implementation of the following command, you can too show hidden files with a Mac keyboard shortcut. For the sake of completeness, here is the command with which you can ensure that otherwise invisible data is visible in the Apple command line:

1. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
2. Press enter
3. killall Finder
4. Press enter

If the "killall Finder" command does not work, click on the Finder symbol in the dock with the Alt key pressed and click on "Restart". Hidden files should now be visible in the Finder.

Of course, you can also hide the hidden folders and files using the terminal command. The second point can again be implemented individually with the "killall Finder" line or with the key combination:

1. defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
2. Then restart the Finder again; then the hidden data should be gone

Do you know any other interesting and funny commands for the Mac Terminal? Then leave a comment!

Johannes Domke

After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.