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ZDNET's cardinal takeaways
- If you privation accelerated and efficient, the bid enactment is the mode to go.
- MacOS has plentifulness of useful CLI tools acceptable to beryllium used.
- Each of these tools is escaped and easy installed.
I cognize what you're thinking: "MacOS is each astir user-friendliness and GUI apps." Although that whitethorn beryllium true, you'd beryllium remiss if you didn't astatine slightest cognize astir immoderate of the terminal apps that are disposable to the OS.
These terminal apps are lightweight, reliable, and overmuch easier to usage than you mightiness think. Sure, you person to benignant (as opposed to point-and-click), but erstwhile you recognize however these tools work, you mightiness find them much businesslike than their GUI counterparts.
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If you're inactive questioning this idea, support speechmaking and spot if immoderate of these tools mightiness tempt you to unfastened the MacOS terminal app.
1. pandoc
Have you ever needed to person a record from 1 benignant to another, but didn't privation to person to unfastened the GUI, unfastened the file, person the file, and past adjacent the app? If that sounds similar you, past you'll beryllium blessed to cognize that there's a command-line instrumentality called pandoc, that makes this process easier.
Pandoc is disposable arsenic a pkg installation bundle that you tin download from the authoritative GitHub site. Double-click it and travel the elemental instructions. Or, if you person Homebrew installed, you tin adhd Pandoc with the command:
brew instal pandoc
Once installed, pandoc is elemental to use. Open the terminal app, alteration into the directory lodging the record to beryllium converted (such arsenic cd Documents), and tally the command:
Let's accidental you privation to person a .txt record to a .docx file. The bid for this would be:
pandoc -s file.txt -o file.docx
You tin spot a implicit database of conversion commands connected the official pandoc examples page.
2. taskwarrior
Taskwarrior is simply a command-line to-do database app that allows you to negociate a database of tasks successful a accelerated and businesslike way. You tin adhd tasks, presumption tasks, and people tasks arsenic done. Although it doesn't person each the bells and whistles of a GUI app, taskwarrior doesn't get successful your way, nor does it complicate things.
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To instal taskwarrior, you person to person Homebrew installed and past adhd the app with:
brew instal taskwarrior-tui
Here's however it works. Say you privation to adhd a task to bash the dishes. The bid for this would be:
task adhd Do dishes
Once you've done that, you tin database your tasks with:
task list
Each task is assigned an ID (first column). Using that ID, you tin append to a task similar this:
task appended ID and lawsuit toilets
Where ID is the ID of the task to beryllium deleted.
If you database the tasks, you should spot the task with the appended accusation added.
When a task is complete, you tin region it with:
task done ID
Where ID is the ID of the task to beryllium deleted.
To find retired each you tin bash with the task (there's rather a bit), marque definite to work the manual with the command:
man task
3. Ollama
I've written extensively astir Ollama, and knew it would beryllium 1 of the command-line utilities successful this list. Ollama is simply a section AI that you tin install, propulsion immoderate of the supported models for use, and past tally your queries from the terminal app. It's powerful, and due to the fact that it's installed locally, it's backstage and doesn't spot a load connected the powerfulness grid.
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When you instal Ollama connected MacOS, you tin either instal the GUI app and usage the bid line, oregon you tin simply instal the command-line instrumentality lone utilizing Homebrew, similar so:
homebrew instal ollama
Once installed, propulsion a exemplary with the command:
ollama propulsion MODEL
Where MODEL is the exemplary you want. You tin find a database of disposable models connected the official Ollama site. Say you privation to propulsion the gpt-oss:20b model, which tin beryllium done with:
ollama tally gpt-oss:20b
You tin past tally the exemplary with:
ollama tally gpt-oss:20b
At the Ollama prompt, you tin past tally your queries arsenic you usually would.
4. ag
The ag bid allows you to hunt for strings wrong files. Even better, ag searches aggregate files for the aforesaid string. Say you person a clump of substance files successful your Documents directory and you request to cognize which of them incorporate ZDNET. The ag bid volition not lone archer you which files incorporate the string, but it'll bash it precise quickly.
The ag bid is simply a portion of the_silver_searcher bundle and tin beryllium installed with Homebrew similar so:
brew instal the_silver_searcher
Once installed, you could hunt those files by changing into the directory containing them (such arsenic cd Documents) and past moving the hunt similar this:
ag ZDNET
The results volition database which files incorporate the string.
5. yt-dlp
Do you ever request to download videos from YouTube? If so, you'll beryllium gladsome to cognize that there's a command-line instrumentality for that, called yt-dlp. This app is accelerated and regularly updated (so it'll enactment up of immoderate changes YouTube makes that mightiness forestall it from working).
Yt-dlp tin beryllium installed (along with the required ffmpeg) with Homebrew, similar so:
brew instal yt-dlp ffmpeg
Once installed, you tin download YouTube videos (subject to rights, of course) with the command:
yt-dlp URL
Where URL is the URL of the video to beryllium downloaded.
If you lone privation the audio, the bid would be:
yt-dlp -x --audio-format mp3 URL
And that's it.
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