Terminal (macOS)

Last updated

Terminal
Developer Apple Inc.
Initial releaseMarch 27, 2001;24 years ago (2001-03-27)
Stable release
2.15 (464) / September 15, 2025;35 days ago (2025-09-15)
Written in Objective-C
Operating system macOS
Platform
Type Terminal emulator
License Proprietary
Website support.apple.com/guide/terminal/welcome/mac   OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Terminal 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

References

  1. ↑ "What Is Mac OS X - All Applications and Utilities - Terminal". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on May 10, 2013.
  2. ↑ 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.
  3. ↑ "Use zsh as the default shell on your Mac". Apple Support. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
  4. 1 2 McElhearn, Kirk (December 26, 2006). The Mac OS X Command Line: Unix Under the Hood. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   9780470113851.
  5. ↑ Kissell, Joe (January 1, 2009). Take Control of the Mac Command Line with Terminal. TidBITS Publishing, Inc. ISBN   9781933671550.
  6. ↑ "nsterm - AppKit Terminal.app", terminfo.src , retrieved June 7, 2013
  7. ↑ "Use Spotlight from the Command Line with mdfind". OS X Daily. December 5, 2006. Retrieved April 15, 2025.
  8. ↑ "Finding Files from the Command Line". OS X Daily. October 29, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2025.
  9. ↑ 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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