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macOS command-line tools you might not know about

(saurabhs.org)
2039 points Gadiguibou | 4 comments | 27 Jun 23 12:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.025s | source
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klausa ◴[27 Jun 23 12:42 UTC] No.36491947[source]▶
`pbcopy` and `pbpaste` are one of my most-loved in the list.

Dealing with some minified json, switching to iTerm, doing `pbpaste | json_pp | pbcopy` and having a clean output is _so_ nice.

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mig39 ◴[27 Jun 23 15:26 UTC] No.36494242[source]▶
It's cool to use pbcopy and pbpaste with your phone! Copy some text on the phone, and you can pbpaste it onto the Mac command line. So cool.
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nojs ◴[27 Jun 23 15:46 UTC] No.36494515[source]▶
It creeps me out when the clipboard is unexpectedly shared between my phone and computer. And since the feature seems to turn on randomly but not reliably when I want it to, I’d rather it just didn’t exist.
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pjot ◴[27 Jun 23 15:52 UTC] No.36494594[source]▶
Make sure both your phone and computer have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on.
replies(1): >>36494889 #
1. MikeTheGreat ◴[27 Jun 23 16:15 UTC] No.36494889[source]▶
I'm curious why the Bluetooth is required?

Requiring WiFi makes (so the phone/computer is on a network and can communicate with the other devices), but what's the benefit of Bluetooth? Does it only work when the phone and computer are near each other?

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2. hanche ◴[27 Jun 23 16:41 UTC] No.36495309[source]▶
Bluetooth is used to discover peers and to initiate communication. Thus handoff works even on a wifi network that blocks broadcasts. It even works when no wifi network is present, by setting up an ad hoc network for the connection. (Disclaimer: This is all I know. The details seem rather murky, as handoff is a proprietary Apple protocol.)
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3. borski ◴[27 Jun 23 16:48 UTC] No.36495454[source]▶
Yes.
4. lathiat ◴[29 Jun 23 11:21 UTC] No.36518953[source]▶
The requirements are here: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT209455

Turning off Bluetooth or wifi may be one of the more common reasons it doesn’t work. Some people never do that, but others do.