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SkillSnap Official GuideUpdated 7/24/2026
macOS Terminal
Master the command line. Essential Unix commands, MacOS-specific tools, and productivity shortcuts.
MacOS Exclusives
Open current folder in Finderopen .
Open specific App (e.g. Safari)open -a [App]
Copy output to Clipboard (cat file | pbcopy)pbcopy
Paste Clipboard content (pbpaste > file)pbpaste
Prevent Mac from sleepingcaffeinate -i
Spotlight Search via Terminalmdfind 'text'
Text-to-Speech outputsay 'text'
Navigation & Files
Print Working Directory (Where am I?)pwd
List all files (Hidden + Sizes)ls -lah
Go to previous directory (Back button)cd -
Go to Home directorycd ~
Create nested directoriesmkdir -p [path]
Create empty filetouch [file]
Copy folder recursivelycp -r [src] [dst]
Move or Rename filemv [old] [new]
System & Monitoring
View processes sorted by CPUtop -o cpu
Interactive process viewer (requires install)htop
Find Process ID (PID) of appps aux | grep [app]
Stop specific process IDkill [PID]
Force quit app by namekillall [App]
Check disk space usagedf -h
Check size of specific folderdu -sh [folder]
Permissions (Danger Zone)
Make file executablechmod +x [file]
Owner: All / Others: Read+Executechmod 755 [file]
Change file ownershipchown [user] [file]
Run as SuperUser (Admin)sudo [cmd]
Networking
Check connectivity & latencyping google.com
Show local IP addressifconfig
Fetch HTTP header (Check status)curl -I [url]
Log into remote serverssh user@host
Secure copy file to serverscp [file] user@host:~
See app using specific portlsof -i :[port]
Search & Text
Find text inside filegrep 'text' [file]
Search text in all files in foldergrep -r 'text' .
Find files by name/extensionfind . -name '*.js'
Search command historyhistory | grep 'cmd'
Compare files line-by-linediff [f1] [f2]
Output full file contentcat [file]
View large file (q to quit)less [file]
Shell Shortcuts (Zsh)
Reverse Search historyCtrl + R
Jump to Start / End of lineCtrl + A / E
Clear entire lineCtrl + U
Clear screenCtrl + L
Re-run last command (e.g. sudo !!)!!
Autocomplete file/folder namesTab
Archives
Compress folder to zipzip -r [name] [folder]
Extract zip fileunzip [file]
Create tarball (Linux standard)tar -czvf [name] [dir]
Extract tarballtar -xzvf [file]
Safety & Best Practices
💡Never run 'rm -rf /' - it deletes the entire drive.
💡Use 'man [command]' (e.g. 'man ls') to read the manual for any tool.
💡Install Homebrew to manage packages: 'brew install node', etc.