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Leopard Tweaking - Another Terminal Commands

I've written several entries of Terminal commands. I collected all of them inside tags named Terminal; Feel free to look at them. Since I've got brand new Terminal commands inside my collection, I would like to share inside this article.

Desktop : Login Picture

Set Login Picture

defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture "/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/vortex.png"

I use vortex.png for this sample command lines.

Exposé : Rounded Button

Show Button

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool YES
killall Dock

Hide Button

defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater -bool NO
killall Dock

Blue rounded button will appear on the top-right corner of the screen.

  • Click on the button has the same effect as F10
  • Option-Click on the button has the same effect as F9

Exposé : Semicircle Button

Enable

defaults write com.appe.dock wvous-showcorners -bool YES
killall Dock

Disable

defaults write com.appe.dock wvous-showcorners -bool NO
killall Dock

A semicircle transparent button will appear on the top-left corner of the screen. Clicking this button will turn off currently active Exposé state. It will do nothing if Exposé is not turned on.

Appearance : Recent Document

Set Limit

defaults write -g NSRecentDocumentsLimit -int 0

0 can be changed to any number.

Dock : Minimize Effect

Genie Effect

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect genie
killall Dock

Scale Effect

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect scale
killall Dock

Suck Effect

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect suck
killall Dock

Default Effect

defaults delete com.apple.Dock mineffect
killall Dock

Dock : Pin Point

Start Point

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string start
killall Dock

End Point

defaults write com.apple.dock pinning -string end
killall Dock

Middle Point (Default)

defaults delete com.apple.dock pinning
killall Dock

The effect of pin point can be seen when you scale up/down your Dock.

Safari : Auto-Open Downloads

Turn Off

defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -bool NO

Turn On

defaults write com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads -bool YES

Use Default Setting

defaults delete com.apple.Safari AutoOpenSafeDownloads

Terminal : Opt-Click to Move Cursor

Enable

defaults write com.apple.Terminal OptionClickToMoveCursor -bool YES

Disable

defaults delete com.apple.Terminal OptionClickToMoveCursor

Appearance : Scroll Arrows

Together at Left Side

defaults write -g AppleScrollBarVariant -string DoubleMin
killall Finder

Together at Right Side

defaults write -g AppleScrollBarVariant -string DoubleMax
killall Finder

Together at Both Sides

defaults write -g AppleScrollBarVariant -string DoubleBoth
killall Finder

One for Each Side

defaults write -g AppleScrollBarVariant -string Single
killall Finder

Dock : Trash

Show Empty Trash

defaults write com.apple.dock trash-full -bool NO
killall Dock

Show Full Trash

defaults write com.apple.dock trash-full -bool YES
killall Dock

With these command lines, you will set your trash regardless the trash is currently empty or full.

Address Book : Debug Menu

Show

defaults write com.apple.addressbook ABShowDebugMenu -bool YES

Hide

defaults delete com.apple.addressbook ABShowDebugMenu

Finder : All Animations

Turn On

defaults write com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations -bool YES
killall Finder

Turn Off

defaults delete com.apple.finder DisableAllAnimations
killall Finder

Finder : Quit Menu Item

Show

defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES
killall Finder

Hide

defaults delete com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem
killall Finder

Finder : Snap to Grid Animation

Turn Off

defaults write com.apple.Finder AnimateSnapToGrid -bool NO
killall Finder

Turn On

defaults delete com.apple.Finder AnimateSnapToGrid
killall Finder

Safari : Tab Bar

Always Show

defaults write com.apple.Safari AlwaysShowTabBar -bool YES

Hide

defaults write com.apple.Safari AlwaysShowTabBar -bool NO

Default

defaults delete com.apple.Safari AlwaysShowTabBar

Relaunch Safari to see the effect.

Safari : Antialiasing-Smooth Font

Set High Threshold

defaults write com.apple.Safari AppleAntiAliasingThreshold -int 8
defaults write com.apple.Safari AppleSmoothFontsSizeThreshold -int 8

Set Low Threshold

defaults write com.apple.Safari AppleAntiAliasingThreshold -int 2
defaults write com.apple.Safari AppleSmoothFontsSizeThreshold -int 2

Set Default Value

defaults delete com.apple.Safari AppleAntiAliasingThreshold
defaults delete com.apple.Safari AppleSmoothFontsSizeThreshold

Security : Crash Reporter

Show Report

defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType crashreport

Turn Off

defaults write com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType none

Use Default

defaults delete com.apple.CrashReporter DialogType

I also find this free tool for OS X, CLIX, that provides handy command line interface for your Mac. CLIX also guides you through the whole process of using command lines.

Categories: UNIX, Open Source
Tags: Terminal

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32 Comments

Cyril Kotecký 

About half of these have simple keyboard shortcuts or are in the system preferences. This is slowly moving to windows - why do it easily, if it can be made in a difficult way?

gh 

how do you enter a line break in terminal ?

Ken 

So I was busy playing around with my expose blue button, when somehow i got it stuck behind the upper menu bar! would there be a way to disable it or perhaps reset the button to the center of the screen? thanks!

Webmaster 

Hi Ken, you can try using the following command lines :


defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-floater-pos 0

killall Dock

Your Expose blue button will come back to its initial position which is top right corner below your menu bar.

Nate 

I'm just now learning about Terminal.
I'm having trouble entering the "suck effect" for the dock.

Do I enter, "com.apple.dock mineffect -string suck killall Dock" ?

Cuz that command won't work on my iBook G4 running Tiger.

Thaweesak 

@Nate

Just type the following to get the 'suck' effect.

defaults write com.apple.Dock mineffect scale [press enter]
killall Dock [press enter]

Done! :)


@Webmaster

The code you provided for the suck effect doesn't work for me though. I get the following error.

defaults write com.apple.dock mineffdefaults write com.apple.dock mineffect -string suck
2008-02-23 09:08:19.537 defaults[5707:10b] Unexpected argument com.apple.dock; leaving defaults unchanged.


The command on macosxhints works though.
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20010324091350279

Thaweesak 

Eh, what happened to my linebreaks?

Wendy 

You need to use html code for line break to add line break on the comment. ^^

paintba||er 

@Nate:  Or rather than pressing enter you could just put a ; between the two commands.

Roger MP 

Hi !

I want to know if exist a terminal code to eliminate the focus window-shadow in leopard ? Thanks !

Jason 

defaults read com.apple.finder
defaults read 

Those will show you a lot of the stuff you can change using the defaults command.

Of course you change defaults at your peril!

Jason 

That should be:

defaults read com.apple.finder

defaults read 



Those will show you a lot of the stuff you can change using the defaults command.



Of course you change defaults at your peril!

Alec 

Also there's widget Developer mode... type 
 com.apple.dashboard devmode YES; killall Dashboard 
 Now go to dashboard, begin dragging a widget, and hit F12. This will bring the widget out of the dashboard and into Finder (Like Windows' crappy Sidebar widgets.)

Nanngg 

Apple 4ever

alberto 

When using Finder or other apps and then use the open or save File command menu window the "Recent Places" Show 5 locations

Is it possible to have 10 or more items/places/locations?

Wendy 

Hi Alberto, it's possible to do that. Just go to System Preferences - Appearance, and you can see clearly the settings there.

alberto 

actually Im talking about this window Recent Places 

http://michieli.org/download/0012%20Mac%20OS%20X%20Recent%20places.png

Maybe some unix command?

Thanks again

The Blueprint Project Black Edition 

Nice post. Thanks for the info ..

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Tony D 

I'm a Normal, just investigating Terminal, but keen to learn.

I successfully used the command in order to get rid of Tool Tips in Safari [defaults write com.apple.safari - etc etc]. 

It felt GREAT getting shot of ToolTips, but even better at having some control over my destiny!

My question is - 

Is it possible to find a list/lists of OTHER such commands [eg 'default' commands or why], in order to tweak my Mac?  

Over to you, Geeks!

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