Easily because you can accomplish a really complicated and nuanced task with a series of simple scripts that break it down into smaller pieces.Accurately because a good script will execute a defined action the same way every time, instead of trusting an occasionally fumble-fingered admin to complete the task manually, which can lead to errors, inconsistency, and confusion.Quickly because using scripts in conjunction with MDM can automate tedious tasks, letting you do something like accessing a computer program on 100 company devices with zero clicks instead of 100.They let you do complicated things quickly, accurately, and easily: Instead of spending 30 minutes per computer performing the same task over and over again, you can write a script once and then deploy it to tens, hundreds, or thousands of computers.īecause scripts can be delivered to user devices via a device management solution (such as Kandji), they’re indispensable tools for IT teams. How scripts can help with device management.Ī script for a computer is just a series of instructions for the computer to execute and as such is a great way to automate repetitive tasks.Deploying scripts with a device management solution and.
It is not intended to be a general-purpose guide to shell scripting for all Mac users. In this guide, we’re going to focus on the basics that IT teams need to know about scripts, to help them perform actions on multiple devices in their organizations using an MDM solution. For instance, instead of switching to the Finder, navigating to /Users/Shared, and clicking File > New Folder, you could open Terminal and enter the command mkdir /Users/Shared/ NewFolderName.īut while entering commands one at a time at the command line is handy, what if you find yourself entering the same commands over and over again? Or what if you need to run the same commands on multiple computers? That’s where scripting-more specifically, shell scripting-comes in handy. The CLI on macOS is typically accessed via the Terminal application. But smart Mac admins know that anything you can do in the GUI you can also do from the command-line interface (CLI).
On Mac, the most obvious and most common way is through the graphical user interface (GUI) using a keyboard, mouse, or trackpad. Type ls and press the Return key, and you’ll see the folders (and/or files) in the current directory.With computers, there are usually multiple ways to do a given thing. To do that you use the ls (or list) command.
While you’re there-or when you’re in any folder ( directory in Unix-speak)-you might want to know what’s in it. When you first get to the command line, you’re in your home folder. The % is a character that the shell (the default interface that Terminal uses) displays to indicate that it’s ready to accept a command.(In the Finder, that’s the folder with your user name and the house icon.) ~ is a shortcut that means the current user’s Home folder. The ~ shows where you are in the file system of the Mac.Mac-Pro-8 is the name of the Mac (same as the Computer Name in the Sharing pane of System Preferences).In the prompt above romansempire is the user name.The second line is the prompt, and while it can change from system to system depending on configuration, by default it contains several bits of information:.The first line shows the last time you logged into your Mac via the command line that’s the current time, when you’re using Terminal.