Mac OS X Cheat Sheet

Table of Contents

User Account Stuff

Changing login shell

(Works for Lion; not tested elsewhere): Just use the old BSD chsh command.

Creating a login hook

One solution, adapted from http://www.bombich.com/mactips/loginhooks.html and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301446:

First, create directory /Library/Local. Then, create file /Library/Local/on-login.sh containing, e.g.:

#!/bin/sh

case "$#" in
    0)
        echo "No user specified!" >&2
        exit 1
        ;;
esac

if [ -f /Users/$1/.on-login.sh ]
then
    su $1 -c "/Users/$1/.on-login.sh"
fi

Use individual .on-login.sh scripts in user directories.

User Interface

Focus follows mouse

The Mac is terrible at this capability. There are some workarounds, including:

Capturing the screen

Results are written to a PNG file on the Desktop

Disable the Dashboard

From MacOSXHints.com:

To turn Dashboard off:

$ defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES

To turn Dashboard on:

$ defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean NO

You have to restart the Dock after making either change for it to take effect:

$ killall Dock

Lock screen without logging off or waiting for screensaver

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/01/lockscreen/index.php

You can use this application (in your Applications/Utilities folder) to quickly activate your screen saver from the menubar and require a password to turn it off–even if the Security pane option isn’t enabled. Open Keychain Access and then go to Keychain Access: Preferences. Click on the General tab and select the Show Status in Menu Bar option. A small lock icon will appear in your menu bar. Close the Preferences window and quit Keychain Access. Now click the lock icon in your menubar and choose Lock Screen to start your screen saver.

Another solution: Use Automator to assign a keyboard shortcut, as described at http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20090831093941225.

Creating a dock folder (a “stack”)

Just drag a folder to the dock. Note: Can’t always drag from the sidebar, though (e.g., Applications)

Calibrating the monitor

Use System Preferences > Displays > Calibrate. Select Expert Mode.

Hiding users on login screen

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow \
HiddenUsersList -array-add account1 account2 account3

Be sure to type .../com.apple.loginwindow, NOT .../com.apple.loginwindow.plist. The file name ends in .plist, but the defaults utility ignores the extension. (Using the extension results in creation of file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist.plist, which is no help at all.

Creating a custom icon for a drive or folder

http://macapper.com/2007/04/21/how-to-create-custom-icons-for-your-mac/

NOTE: Icns2Rsrc seems to be gone. For Lion, though, just try this:

Prevent Mac from going to sleep

Use Caffeine, which sits in the menu bar: http://lightheadsw.com/caffeine

Disable “Empty Trash” confirmation dialog

Go to Finder > Preferences, select the Advanced button, and uncheck “Show warning before emptying the Trash.” You may also wish to check the “Empty Trash securely” while you’re there.

Change file associations

To change default application that opens a file (e.g., PDF):

Open Source Software

Mac Ports, Fink, etc.

Skip Mac Ports and Fink. Use HomeBrew, instead.

Emacsen

Aquamacs

Completely re-worked, Carbon-ized, Mac-specific version of GNU Emacs.

Via Homebrew

brew install emacs

Build from source

Regular GNU Emacs. See http://members.shaw.ca/akochoi-emacs/stories/obtaining-and-building.html

Solution:

Build first for NextStep:

$ ./configure --with-ns --without-dbus
$ make bootstrap
$ make
$ sudo make install

Next, build for X:

$ make clean
$ ./configure --with-x
$ make bootstrap
$ make
$ sudo cp src/emacs /usr/local/bin/emacs-x

Then, use a modified version of the ew front-end shell script to fire up the appropriate one, depending on whether login is local or remote.

Note: –with-ns creates a Mac Emacs.app folder, which ends up being installed in /Applications, allowing use directly from the desktop.

Audio

To capture audio from specific applications

Use Audio Hijack Pro: http://rogueamoeba.com/audiohijackpro/

Control sound devices from menu bar

Use SoundSource: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/freebies/

Convert an M4A

First, install FAAD and LAME:

$ brew install faad2
$ brew install lame

… to a WAV

$ faad -o foo.wav foo.m4a

… to an MP3

$ faad -o - foo.m4a | lame -h -b 192 - foo.mp3

Or, just install this script, as m4a2mp3:

#!/bin/bash

for i in "$@"
do
    case $i in
        *.m4a)
            faad -o - "$i" | lame -h -b 192 - "${i%m4a}mp3"
            ;;
        *)
            echo "Skipping non-M4A file $i" >&2
            ;;
    esac
done

Video

Capturing Streaming Video

See http://www.cultofmac.com/115523/capturing-streaming-video-in-os-x-lion-video-how-to/

Basics:

Email

Thunderbird

If it hangs, try removing all the “.msf” folders in the local folders area, letting T-bird rebuild them (especially if they were built by T-bird running on another OS).

Printing

LPD printer stopped. No explanation

Solution: Check /etc/hosts.lpd on machine running LPD.

Change printer info

Use /Applications/Utilities/Printer Setup Utility

Disks, Files and File Systems

Those .DS_Store files

Preventing Mac OS X from creating .DS_Store files over network connections http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301711

Note: This will affect the user’s interactions with SMB/CIFS, AFP, NFS, and WebDAV servers.

Open a terminal window and type:

$ defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores true

Restart the computer.

Disabling the creation of .DS_Store files on remote file servers can cause unexpected behavior in the Finder. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107822

(Get Info comments aren’t properly propagated.)

Getting Finder to show hidden files

In a Terminal window, run this command:

$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
$ killall Finder

Burning a disc

Burning a DVD from a disk image

Burning a DVD from a disk image (.img), such as one created by iDVD:

Burning from an ISO

Creating and burning a data disc

First way:

Second way:

Create a DVD from a VIDEO_TS directory

Create a DVD from a VIDEO_TS directory (e.g., as created from iDVD’s “Save to VIDEO_TS” capability). From http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070612161317338:

Type in this command and change the paths to suit:

$ hdiutil makehybrid -udf -udf-volume-name DVD_NAME \
  -o MY_DVD.iso /path/to/VIDEO_TS/parent/folder

Make sure that /path/to/VIDEO_TS/parent/folder is the path to the folder containing the VIDEO_TS folder, not the VIDEO_TS folder itself. Once the .iso file has been created, drag this to Disk Utility and hit the Burn button.

Mac Fuse and sshfs

Install via HomeBrew:

$ brew install sshfs

Be sure to follow the instructions in this output:

$ brew info fuse4x-kext

Automounting shares and NFS partitions:

Automounting Windows shares on login

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070202190047133

Working with PDFs

Merge two PDFs, or pages thereof

Add an image to a PDF

Note that a PDF made from an image is not searchable, so that is a drawback to this procedure.

Server Software

Restarting a server (such as Postfix)

$ sudo launchctl stop org.postfix.master
$ sudo launchctl start org.postfix.master

Enabling Postfix

Adapted from http://www.freshblurbs.com/how-enable-local-smtp-postfix-os-x-leopard

Edit /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist add following lines before the closing </dict> tag:

<key>RunAtLoad</key>
<true/>
<key>KeepAlive</key>
<true/>

Edit /etc/postfix/main.cf as necessary.

Then, start Postfix:

$ sudo launchctl start org.postfix.master

BIND on Mac OS X

http://slaptijack.com/system-administration/bind-startup-in-mac-os-x-104-tiger/ http://slaptijack.com/system-administration/starting-bind-in-os-x-even-after-reboot/

Apache

Pre-Mountain Lion

Enable “Personal Web Sharing” in the System Preferences > Sharing panel.

NOTE: When you enable personal web sharing, the system creates file /etc/httpd/users/$USER.conf to contain the Apache \<Directory\> entry for the user’s Sites folder. Any changes (e.g., to enable symlinking) must be made in there, not in httpd.conf.

Mountain Lion and beyond

In /etc/httpd/users, copy Guest.conf to $USER.conf, and edit appropriately. Then, restart Apache:

$ sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl restart

Running cron

http://mactips.dwhoard.com/home/system/schedule-automatic-tasks

Once the crontab file and the associated script file(s) have been created and stored in the specified locations, you must initiate the cron process by issuing the command:

# crontab $HOME/.crontab

Network

Clear DNS cache

$ sudo lookupd -flushcache

mDNSResponder

mDNSResponder is responsible for Bonjour. Quote from: http://osxdaily.com/2009/09/15/disable-bonjour-by-turning-off-mdnsresponder/:

Bonjour is a great service that runs in the background of your Mac to auto-discover network resources, that is, it’s great until mDNSResponder goes haywire. I was recently in a very creatively crafted network environment that made Bonjour absolutely freak out and tax my CPU with a million processes, so I opted to just disable the service temporarily. Generally speaking you should leave Bonjour enabled since its functionality is ubiquitously used throughout Mac OS X, but if you DO want to disable mDNSResponder, here’s how to do it:

To disable it without screwing up regular DNS:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3789

VPN routing

Bring up a PPTP VPN and, by default, all traffic gets routed over that connection. Solutions:

Via Internet Connect:

  1. Pull up Internet Connect.
  2. Select the PPTP VPN.
  3. Go to the menu bar and select Connect > Options
  4. Uncheck “Send all traffic over VPN connection”

Or, use a shell script to change the routes.

Dynamic linking

Use DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH to pick up .dylib files.

Miscellaneous

Startup Items

Primer on Startup Items:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2003/10/21/startup.html

Safari

See the Safari cheat sheet.

GNU configure errors

When building GNU-based open source, configure fails with

configure fails with 'Can't determine host type'

Solution: Copy config.guess and config.sub from /usr/share/libtool to the current directory (i.e., the directory containing the GNU autoconf-generated configure script).

Making the Mac OS X Color Picker into an Application

From http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20060408050920158:

Consider adding the free HexColorPicker

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