Useful Commands

Here is a list of commands that can be helpful in administration and troubleshooting on Mac’s:

Desktop, Dock & LaunchPad

• defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock # reset LaunchPad
• defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock # reset the Dock

Imaging / Deployment

• softwareupdate --list-full-installers # display available macOS installers for download
• softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version **.**.* # download a specific macOS version installer

Network

• sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder # clear dns cache
  • sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder # macOS 10.14 – Mac OS X 10.7
  • sudo discoveryutil udnsflushcaches # macOS 10.10 only
  • sudo dscacheutil -flushcache # Mac OS X 10.6
  • sudo lookupd -flushcache # Mac OS X 10.5
  • lookupd -flushcache # Mac OS X 10.4

Sharing & Services

• sudo launchctl print system/ # list all services
• sudo scutil --set HostName “Host Name” # set hostname (useful if there is a mismatch between sharing preferences and the shell
• sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.AppleFileServer.plist # enable AFP sharing on macOS Catalina and earlier
• sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist # enable SMB file sharing