Using the Command Line with the Graphical Environment

In Mac OS X, the command line and the graphical interface work hand-in-hand. You can easily transfer data from one environment to the other and move between the two environments.

You can select a group of files in the Finder and drag them to a Terminal window to add their paths to a command.

The pbcopy and pbpaste commands allow you to copy and paste, respectively, data to and from the clipboard.

The open command allows you to open files and URLs as if you had double-clicked them in the Finder. For example,

open ~/Documents/ReadMe.rtf

launches TextEdit (or your preferred application for dealing with RTF files) and opens the specified ReadMe.rtf file. The command

open http://www.apple.com

launches your preferred web browser (set in Internet preferences) and opens the Apple home page.