15 Feb 2026

Frequently Used Terminal Commands

A practical reference list of commonly used macOS terminal commands for daily development and system management.

macos terminal cli unix development

macOS is built on Unix, which means powerful terminal commands are available for file management, networking, system monitoring, and development tasks.

Below is a structured list of frequently used macOS commands.

To Stop Terminal Process

• Ctrl + C → Stop current process
• Ctrl + Z → Suspend process
• Cmd + . → Interrupt process (alternative to Ctrl + C)
• ⌘ + Shift + . → Force quit terminal app by modifying the .zshrc to some another name (use with caution)

File & Directory Management

• pwd – Print current directory
• ls – List files
• ls -la – List all files (including hidden)
• cd <directory> – Change directory
• cd .. – Move up one directory
• mkdir <name> – Create directory
• rmdir <name> – Remove empty directory
• rm <file> – Remove file
• rm -rf <directory> – Force remove directory
• cp <src> <dest> – Copy file
• mv <src> <dest> – Move or rename file
• touch <file> – Create empty file
• open . – Open current folder in Finder

File Viewing & Editing

• cat <file> – Display file content
• less <file> – View file page by page
• head <file> – Show first 10 lines
• tail <file> – Show last 10 lines
• tail -f <file> – Live file monitoring
• nano <file> – Open file in Nano editor
• vim <file> – Open file in Vim
• code <file> – Open file in VS Code (if installed)

System Information

• whoami – Current user
• hostname – System hostname
• uname -a – System information
• sw_vers – macOS version
• date – Current date & time
• uptime – System running time

Disk & Storage

• df -h – Disk free space
• df -h / – Main drive space
• du -sh . – Current folder size
• du -sh <folder> – Specific folder size

Process Management

• top – Live system monitor
• ps aux – List running processes
• kill <pid> – Kill process
• kill -9 <pid> – Force kill process

Network Commands

• ping <host> – Check connectivity
• ifconfig – Network configuration
• netstat -an – Network statistics
• curl <url> – Fetch URL content
• wget <url> – Download file (if installed)

Package Management (Homebrew)

• brew update – Update formulae
• brew upgrade – Upgrade packages
• brew install <pkg> – Install package
• brew uninstall <pkg> – Remove package
• brew list – List installed packages

Git Commands (Development)

• git clone <repo> – Clone repository
• git status – Check status
• git add . – Stage changes
• git commit -m "message" – Commit changes
• git push – Push to remote
• git pull – Pull updates

Permission & Ownership

• chmod +x <file> – Make file executable
• chmod 755 <file> – Set permission
• chown user:group <file> – Change ownership

Environment & Shell

• echo $PATH – Show PATH variable
• export VAR=value – Set environment variable
• source ~/.zshrc – Reload shell config
• clear – Clear terminal (Shortcut: `Cmd + K`)

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To find files larger than a specific size in macOS, use the find command with the -size option.

Find Files Larger Than 2GB (Entire System)

sudo find / -type f -size +2G 2>/dev/null

• sudo → Required to access all directories
• / → Search from root
• -type f → Only files (For directories, use -type d)
• -size +2G → Greater than 2GB
• 2>/dev/null → Hide permission errors

Find Files Larger Than 3GB

sudo find / -type f -size +3G 2>/dev/null

Search Only Inside Home Directory (Safer & Faster)

find ~ -type f -size +2G

Show File Size Along With Name (Sorted by Size)

find ~ -type f -size +2G -exec ls -lh {} ; | sort -k5 -h

Find Top 20 Largest Files (Alternative Method)

sudo du -ah / 2>/dev/null | sort -rh | head -20

Size Units in find

• k → Kilobytes
• M → Megabytes
• G → Gigabytes

Examples:

-size +500M -size +1G -size +5G