Add article around macOS utilities

articles/useful-macos-cmd-line-utilities.md

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+---
+title: "Useful command-line utilities that are built-in to macOS"
+slug: "useful-macos-cmd-line-utilities"
+date: "2024-11-06"
+published: true
+tags:
+  - macOS
+description: "macOS comes with a lot of built-in utilities. Here's a list of some that I find interesting."
+---
+
+Sometimes when I'm bored, I like to look at the list of [macOS Bash commands](https://ss64.com/mac/). Here's some commands that I found interesting.
+
+## Open files from the terminal
+
+If you want to open a file from the terminal, you can use the `open` command.
+
+```bash
+open file.txt
+```
+
+This will open the file in the default application for that file type, as if you had double-clicked it in the Finder.
+
+## Copy and paste
+
+`pbcopy` and `pbpaste` are command-line utilities that allow you to copy and paste text to the pasteboard (what other operating systems might call the "clipboard").
+
+`pbcopy` takes whatever was given in the standard input, and places it in the pasteboard.
+
+```bash
+echo "Hello, world!" | pbcopy;
+```
+
+`pbpaste` takes whatever is in the pasteboard and prints it to the standard output.
+
+```bash
+pbpaste
+>> Hello, world!
+```
+
+This is very useful for getting data from files into the browser, or other GUI applications.
+
+## UTC date
+
+If you work with servers a lot, it can be useful to know the current time in UTC, when e.g. looking at
+server logs.
+
+This is a one-liner in the terminal:
+
+```bash
+date -u
+```
+
+Alternatively, you can use 
+
+```bash
+TZ=UTC date
+```
+
+## Internet speedtest
+
+If you want to run an Internet speedtest, you can run one directly from the terminal with
+
+```bash
+networkQuality  # Note the capital "Q"!
+```
+
+## Prevent your Mac from sleeping
+
+If you are want to keep your Mac from sleeping, you can run `caffeinate` in the terminal.
+
+```bash
+caffeinate
+```
+
+`caffeinate` will keep your Mac awake until you stop it, e.g. by pressing Ctrl+C. `caffeinate` used to
+be a third-party tool, but it is now built-in to macOS.
+
+I use this mostly to prevent my Mac from sleeping when I am running a server.
+
+## Access your Keychain programmatically
+
+If you store your secrets in the Keychain (and you should!), you can access them programmatically using `security`.
+
+```bash
+security find-internet-password -s "https://example.com"
+```
+
+I found this useful for writing automated scripts that used locally-stored credentials.
+
+Bonus tip: If you are using 1Password, there is a [1Password CLI](https://developer.1password.com/docs/ssh/get-started#install-the-1password-cli) that you can use to access your 1Password items from the command line.
+
+
+## Generate UUIDs
+
+If you need to generate a UUID, you can use the `uuidgen` command.
+
+```bash
+uuidgen
+```
+
+By default `uuidgen` outputs a UUID in uppercase. You can combine this with `tr` and `pbcopy` to copy the UUID to the clipboard in lowercase.
+
+```bash
+uuidgen | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | pbcopy
+```
+
+I use this a lot when writing unit tests that require IDs.
+
+
+## Honourable mentions
+
+- `mdfind`: Spotlight search, but in the terminal. I generally use Spotlight itself (or rather the excellent [Raycast](https://www.raycast.com/)).
+- `say`: This command makes your Mac speak the text you give it.
+- `screencapture`: This command allows you to take screenshots and save them to a file. I prefer using `cmd-shift-5` for this.
+- `networksetup`: This command allows you to configure your network settings programmatically. I found its API very intimidating, and so I haven't really used it much.