Terminal.app Deep Dive

Terminal.app is macOS’s built-in terminal emulator. While many power users immediately install iTerm2, Terminal.app is surprisingly capable. Understanding its features helps you work effectively on any Mac, even when you can’t install third-party software.

Finding and Launching Terminal

# Terminal is in Utilities
/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app

# Quick access:
# - Spotlight: Cmd+Space, type "Terminal"
# - Finder: Go → Utilities → Terminal
# - Launchpad: Other folder → Terminal

Creating Quick Access

Add Terminal to your Dock by dragging it from Applications/Utilities, or create a keyboard shortcut:

System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Services

• Enable “New Terminal at Folder”
• Enable “New Terminal Tab at Folder”

Now you can right-click any folder and open Terminal there.

Terminal Preferences

Access with Cmd+, or Terminal → Preferences:

General Tab

On startup, open: Choose default behavior

• New window with profile
• New window with same profile (continues last session’s appearance)

Shells open with:

• Default login shell (/bin/zsh)
• Command (specify custom shell or command)

New tabs open with:

• Default Working Directory
• Same Working Directory as current tab

Profiles Tab

Terminal uses “profiles” for appearance and behavior settings. The default profile is “Basic.”

Creating Custom Profiles

1. Click + to add a new profile
2. Name it (e.g., “Development”)
3. Configure settings
4. Set as default with “Default” button

Profile Settings

Text Tab:

• Font: Choose monospace font (Menlo, SF Mono, etc.)
• Font size: Typically 12-14pt
• Text and bold colors
• Cursor: Block, underline, or vertical bar
• Cursor blink

# View current terminal size
$ echo "Columns: $COLUMNS, Rows: $LINES"
Columns: 80, Rows: 24

Window Tab:

• Window size (columns × rows)
• Background color/image
• Blur and transparency
• Title: What appears in title bar

Shell Tab:

• Startup command (run on shell start)
• Ask before closing (prevents accidental closure)
• Close if shell exited cleanly

Keyboard Tab:

• Use Option as Meta key (important for Emacs, many CLI tools)
• Function key behavior

Advanced Tab:

• Terminal type: xterm-256color (recommended for color support)
• International encoding: UTF-8
• Scroll behavior

Recommended Settings

For a good development experience:

1. Font: SF Mono or Menlo, 13pt
2. Window size: 120×35 or larger
3. Terminal type: xterm-256color
4. Option as Meta: Enable (for Alt key bindings)
5. Scroll: Enable “Scroll to bottom on input”

Working with Windows and Tabs

Keyboard Shortcuts

Window Groups

Save and restore window arrangements:

1. Arrange windows as desired
2. Window → Save Windows as Group
3. Name the group
4. Restore: Window → Open Window Group

Tab Bar

Show tab bar even with single tab:

• View → Show Tab Bar
• Or: Cmd+Shift+T toggles tab bar visibility

Text Selection and Editing

Selection Shortcuts

Copy and Paste

# Standard shortcuts
Cmd+C          # Copy
Cmd+V          # Paste
Cmd+Shift+V    # Paste escaped (safe for commands)

Paste Escaped (Cmd+Shift+V): Escapes special characters, preventing accidental command execution when pasting untrusted content.

Quick Look

Select text, press Cmd+Y to Quick Look (preview) URLs or file paths.

Marks and Navigation

Terminal maintains “marks” at each command prompt:

Using Marks

Searching

Colors and Themes

Built-in Profiles

Terminal includes several profiles:

• Basic (black on white)
• Grass (green on green)
• Homebrew (green on black, classic)
• Novel (warm, paper-like)
• Ocean (blue theme)
• Pro (semi-transparent dark)
• Red Sands (warm red tones)
• Silver Aerogel (metallic)
• Solid Colors (various)

Importing Themes

Download .terminal files and double-click to import, or:

1. Terminal → Preferences → Profiles
2. Click gear icon → Import
3. Select .terminal file

Popular theme sources:

• GitHub: lysyi3m/macos-terminal-themes
• Terminal.Sexy
• Gogh Themes

Creating Custom Colors

1. Preferences → Profiles → Text
2. Click color swatches to customize
3. For background: Window tab

256-Color Support

Ensure “Declare terminal as” is set to xterm-256color:

# Test 256-color support
$ for i in {0..255}; do printf "\e[48;5;${i}m  \e[0m"; done; echo

Shell Integration

macOS Terminal has built-in shell integration (since El Capitan):

What Shell Integration Provides

• Marks at each prompt (for navigation)
• Current directory tracking (new tabs open in same directory)
• Command exit status indication
• Notification on long-running command completion

Enabling Shell Integration

Shell integration is automatic with the default zsh configuration. For bash or custom configurations:

# In .zshrc or .bashrc
# This is usually automatic, but can be explicit:
if [[ "$TERM_PROGRAM" == "Apple_Terminal" ]]; then
    # Terminal is managing shell integration
fi

Directory Tracking

With shell integration, Terminal knows your working directory:

# New tab opens in same directory
# Cmd+T → new tab at ~/Documents (if that's where you were)

# Title bar shows current directory

Command Completion Notifications

Terminal can notify you when long commands finish:

1. Edit → Notify When Running Process Completes
2. Or: View → Allow Notifications

Touch Bar Support

On MacBook Pro with Touch Bar:

• Man page viewer
• Color pickers
• Autocomplete suggestions

Customize in System Preferences → Keyboard → Customize Touch Bar.

Secure Input

For entering passwords securely:

1. Terminal → Secure Keyboard Entry (or Cmd+Shift+S)
2. Prevents other applications from reading keystrokes
3. Disable when done to allow normal functionality

# Icon in title bar indicates secure input mode

Working with Files

Opening Files

# Open in default application
$ open document.pdf
$ open image.png

# Open in specific application
$ open -a Preview image.png
$ open -a "Visual Studio Code" file.txt

# Reveal in Finder
$ open -R file.txt

Drag and Drop

• Drag files to Terminal to insert their paths
• Paths are automatically quoted if they contain spaces

Services

Right-click selected text for Services menu:

• Open man page
• Search in Spotlight
• Look up in Dictionary

Printing

Print terminal content:

1. Make selection (optional—prints all if nothing selected)
2. File → Print or Cmd+P
3. Options: Include timestamp, color, etc.

Accessibility

VoiceOver Support

Terminal works with VoiceOver (screen reader):

• Cmd+F5 to enable VoiceOver
• Reads command output
• Navigate with VoiceOver commands

Font Smoothing

For better readability:

• System Preferences → Accessibility → Display
• Adjust contrast and transparency

Window Zoom

• Cmd++ / Cmd+- to zoom
• View → Reset Zoom to default

Automation

AppleScript

Terminal is scriptable:

tell application "Terminal"
    do script "echo 'Hello from AppleScript'"
    do script "cd ~/Documents" in front window
end tell

Opening URLs

Terminal recognizes URLs:

• Cmd+Click to open in browser
• URLs are underlined when hovering

Custom URL Schemes

Create custom schemes to open Terminal from other apps:

# URL: x-terminal://open?command=ls%20-la

Troubleshooting

Reset Terminal

If settings get corrupted:

# Reset to factory defaults
$ defaults delete com.apple.Terminal
# Restart Terminal

Slow Startup

If Terminal is slow to open:

# Clear ASL logs
$ sudo rm -rf /var/log/asl/*.asl

# Check shell startup files for slow operations
# Time your shell startup:
$ time zsh -i -c exit

TERM Variable Issues

If applications look wrong:

# Check TERM
$ echo $TERM
xterm-256color

# Set in Preferences → Profiles → Advanced
# Or in shell config:
export TERM=xterm-256color

Summary

Terminal.app capabilities:

Terminal.app is a solid terminal emulator that handles most needs. For advanced features like split panes, triggers, or extensive customization, consider iTerm2. But for many users, Terminal.app is sufficient and has the advantage of requiring no additional installation.