Terminal (macOS)
| Terminal | |
|---|---|
 | |
 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]
These TERM settings in Terminal.app do not change the actual behavior or capabilities of Terminal itself; they only declare the terminal type to applications running inside the terminal. However, the xterm settings in Terminal.app do not fully match the behavior of the real xterm terminal emulator, which can cause some discrepancies in how applications behave or render colors.[6]
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.[7]
Terminal includes several features that specifically access macOS APIs and features, such as the command mdfind which is the terminal interface of Spotlight.[8][failed verification][9][failed verification] Terminal offers a range of profiles that include custom font and coloring options, and custom profiles can be created as well.[10]
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.
- ^ "What should $TERM be on Mac OSX 10.6.6?". Super User. Retrieved June 27, 2025.
- ^ "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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