Terminal (macOS)
 | |
 Terminal 2.14 running the top program under macOS Sonoma | |
| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
|---|---|
| Initial release | March 27, 2001 |
| Stable release | 2.14 (454.1)
/ September 16, 2024 |
| Written in | Objective-C |
| Operating system | macOS |
| Platform | |
| Type | Terminal emulator |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | support |
Terminal (Terminal.app) is the terminal emulator included in the macOS operating system by Apple.[1] Terminal originated in NeXTSTEP and OPENSTEP, the predecessor operating systems of macOS.[2]
As a terminal emulator, the application provides text-based access to the operating system, in contrast to the mostly graphical nature of the user experience of macOS, by providing a command-line interface to the operating system when used in conjunction with a Unix shell, such as zsh (the default interactive shell since macOS Catalina[3]).[4] The user can choose other shells available with macOS, such as the KornShell, tcsh, and bash.[4][5]
The preferences dialog for Terminal.app in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and later offers choices for values of the TERM environment variable. Available options are ansi, dtterm, nsterm, rxvt, vt52, vt100, vt102, xterm, xterm-16color and xterm-256color, which differ from the OS X 10.5 (Leopard) choices by dropping the xterm-color and adding xterm-16color and xterm-256color. These settings do not alter the operation of Terminal, and the xterm settings do not match the behavior of xterm.[6]
Terminal includes several features that specifically access macOS APIs and features, such as the command mdfind which is the terminal interface of Spotlight.[7][failed verification][8][failed verification] Terminal offers a range of profiles that include custom font and coloring options, and custom profiles can be created as well.[9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "What Is Mac OS X - All Applications and Utilities - Terminal". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on May 10, 2013.
- ^ Wünschiers, Röbbe (January 1, 2004). Computational Biology: Unix/Linux, data processing and programming : with 19 figures and 12 tables. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9783540211426.
- ^ "Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac". Apple Support. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
- ^ a b McElhearn, Kirk (December 26, 2006). The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780470113851.
- ^ Kissell, Joe (January 1, 2009). Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal. TidBITS Publishing, Inc. ISBN 9781933671550.
- ^ "nsterm - AppKit Terminal.app", terminfo.src, retrieved June 7, 2013
- ^ "Use Spotlight from the Command Line with mdfind". OS X Daily. December 5, 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2025.
- ^ "Finding Files from the Command Line". OS X Daily. October 29, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2025.
- ^ Loder, Chip (April 11, 2025). "How to use profiles to change how Terminal windows look in macOS". AppleInsider. Retrieved April 15, 2025.
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