OSX Terminal – Drag and Drop
Posted on | March 6, 2010 | No Comments
This is one of those things that gets all my geeky bits tingling. Apple, in defiance of the age old* command-line-vs-gui debate, have snuck in this wonderfully elegant point of integration between the two worlds. Because really, why should you have to be one or the other when you have the best of both?
Here’s the thing: When using the terminal in OSX, you don’t need to type in the full path to a file you want to manipulate. You can drag the file into the terminal window from the finder, and OSX will insert the full path for you.
Stop. Breathe in, and then out. Think about it. Think about how many hours you have spent finding the path to a file. Typing it in. Getting it wrong. Swearing like a sailor at your screen. Typing it again. You will never have to do this again.
Wow, right?
This is rad, but it gets radder: you can cmd-select multiple files and do the same thing. Want to change read-write permission on two dozen files spread across multiple directories? Easy-fucking-peasy! cmd-select to your heart’s content, drag them into your terminal window and you’re done.
Try and tell me that’s not awesome. Go on. I dare you.
And yes, this is probably an old old old feature. But it’s new to me on account of how i’m pretty much a terminal rookie.
*well, as old as the first gui anyway. which isn’t very old. don’t even get me started on the even age older command-line-vs-punch-card debate.
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