Apple's Terminal provides you with a UNIX command line inside the OS X environment. You can enter the open command here to open any application, or to open a file with the application of your choice. There are several ways to adjust this command to suit your purposes, including the ability to host the application in your Terminal window. To open any file from the command line with the default application, just type open followed by the filename/path. Example: open /Desktop/filename.mp4 Edit: as per Johnny Drama's comment below, if you want to be able to open files in a certain application, put -a followed by the application's name in quotes between open and the file. Using the CD command in Terminal is pretty easy and it follows the same syntax that you use on Windows in the command prompt. Cd path-to-folder. While we’re on the topic of Windows and Command Prompt, you can easily open a command prompt in any folder on Windows 10 by typing cmd in the location bar in File. Click on it and in the pop-up window open the Utilities folder, and in the next list find and open the program Terminal.app. Click it to open macOS Terminal. Another easiest way to open Terminal on Mac is of course by using Siri. Select the Siri icon on the menu bar or open Siri from the Applications folder. If you administer a number of Macs, running common tasks through the command line can reduce your maintenance workload. Using a combination of system commands and open-source repositories, you can update both macOS software and Mac App Store software using Terminal.

Summary :

This post teaches you how to open Terminal on Mac, namely, open the Mac command prompt app, on your Mac computer. You’ll also learn some basic Mac Terminal commands and functions and how to recover deleted/lost data on Mac in this post. MiniTool software provides professional data recovery tools, disk partition manager, video editor, video converter, and more.

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Like Windows Command Prompt utility, macOS also has a built-in command prompt tool named Terminal that lets you access some useful commands. If you want to open Terminal on Mac, so as to use Mac Terminal commands to do some operations in your macOS, you can learn how to open it with one of the 5 ways below.

This tutorial not only provides 5 ways to allow you to open command prompt utility on Mac, but also introduces basic Mac Terminal commands and how to use Terminal on Mac. You can also learn how to recover data on Mac.

How to Open Terminal on Mac - 5 Ways

Open Terminal on Mac via Spotlight Search
How to Open Terminal on Mac with Finder
Use Launchpad to Open Mac Terminal
Launch Terminal Command Prompt on macOS with Siri
Get to Command Line on Mac with Shortcut

How to Open Terminal (Command Prompt) on Mac – 5 Ways

Way 1. Open Terminal on Mac via Spotlight Search

Step 1. You can click the magnifying glass Spotlight icon at the upper-right corner of Mac screen. Alternatively, you can also press Command + Space keyboard shortcut to open Spotlight.

Step 2. Type terminal in the search box, and double-click Terminal application under Top Hit in the result list to open command prompt on Mac.

Way 2. How to Open Terminal on Mac with Finder

Step 1. Open Finder app on your Mac computer by clicking the smiling face at the bottom of Mac screen.

Step 2. In Finder app, you can click Applications in the left column. In the right window, you can click Utilities folder, then scroll down to find and double-click Terminal app to access Mac command prompt.

Way 3. Use Launchpad to Open Mac Terminal

Step 1. Click the sliver rocket-like icon in the Dock to open Launchpad on your Mac. Alternatively, you may also press Fn + F4 keyboard shortcut to open Launchpad.

Step 2. Find and click Other folder, and double-click Terminal to launch CMD on Mac. Alternatively, you can also type terminal in the search box at the top, and click Terminal app to open it.

Way 4. Launch Terminal Command Prompt on macOS with Siri

You can click the Siri button on the menu bar to open Siri. Then you can speak to Siri and say “open terminal” to it. The AI Siri app will open command prompt on Mac for you.

Way 5. Get to Command Line on Mac with Shortcut

Step 1. If you need to frequently access Terminal application on Mac, you can create a shortcut for Terminal app to quickly access it every time.

Right-click Terminal icon, or press Control button when clicking Terminal icon.

Step 2. Select Options, and click Keep in Dock option. Then the Terminal icon will be always in the Dock. You can quickly launch it whenever you want by clicking Mac Terminal shortcut.

Basic Mac Terminal Commands and Functions

1. Change directory in Terminal command line

cd – home directory
cd ~ - home directory
cd <folder> - change the directory to the target folder, e.g. cd Documents
cd/ - go to root of the drive
cd - - go to the previous directory or folder you last browsed
. – move up to the parent directory
./.. – move up two levels of directory

2. Display directory contents in Terminal

Is – the command for listing the name of files and subdirectories in a directory. For example, you can type cd Documents command, press Return, and then type Is command and press Return. You can see all files in your Documents folder.
Is –S – display the files by size
Is –It – list files by modification time (recent ranks first)
Is –la – list detailed directory contents incl. hidden files in it

Wonder how to show hidden files and folders on Mac Mojave/Catalina/High Sierra, etc.? Check the 3 ways in this tutorial. Learn how to recover hidden files Mac.

3. Manage files and directories

open <file name> - open a file
mkdir <folder name> - create a new folder
mkdir “<folder name>” – create a new folder with a space in the folder name
rmdir <folder name> - delete an empty folder
rm –R <folder name> - delete a folder and contents in it
rm <file name> - permanently delete a file
rm –f <file name> - force delete a file
rm <file1> <file2> - delete multiple files without any confirmation
cp <file name> <folder name> - copy a file to the folder

You can use Mac Terminal commands to easily remove unnecessary files and folder to free up space on your Mac. Alternatively, you can also use free MiniTool Partition Manager to analyze and release free space with its built-in Space Analyzer feature.

4. Show hidden files in Finder

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

If you want to hide the files again, you can replace “TURE” with “False” in the command above.

5. Change default file type for screenshots on Mac

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type file-extension

For instance, you can type defaults write com.apple.screencapture type PNG, and press Return to change the default file type of Mac screenshots to PNG.

6. View and clear Terminal commands history

history – check Terminal command history
history – display previously typed commands with the last n items
history –c – delete command lines history in Mac Terminal
Ctrl + R – search through previously used command lines

7. Common Mac Terminal shortcuts

Ctrl + A/E - go to the beginning/end of the line you're currently typing on
Ctrl + U/K - clear the line before/after the cursor
Ctrl + W - delete the word before the cursor
Ctrl + C - kill whatever you're running
Option + →/← - move cursor one word forward/backward
Ctrl + F/B - move cursor one character forward/backward
Ctrl + _ - undo the last command
Ctrl + L – clear the screen

For more useful Mac Terminal commands, you can check: The Mac Terminal Commands Sheet.

8. How to recover deleted files with Terminal command

Step 1. Follow one of the 5 ways above to open Terminal on Mac.

Step 2. Type the following command lines to recover deleted files from Trash. Remember to hit Return key after typing each command.

cd .Trash
Is
mv filename ../ (replace filename with the exact file name o

Command For Open File With Terminal.app In Mac