Mac/OSX

Quick Reference

Boot Options

• In order to boot into Safe Mode, hold Shift.
• In order to boot into Startup Disk Select Mode, hold Option(alt).
• In order to boot into recovery mode, hold Command (⌘)-Option(alt)-R.

User Management

• To list all users in a group:
  • dscacheutil -q group -a name [groupname]
• To add users to a group:
  • dseditgroup -o edit -a [username] -t user [groupname]
  • Note that adding to certain groups will require a -p flag which will prompt for the user's password when the command is submitted.

Disable popup showing accented characters when holding down a key

In macOS, when a key is held down while entering text, a popup is shown which lets one choose between various accented forms of the character. To disable this execute the following command-line in the Terminal.app:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool false

Now, you'll need to log-out and log back in. This should disable the display of the popup and character typed should start repeating when the key is held down.

If you ever wish to return to this behaviour, execute the following command-line in the Terminal.app:

defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool true

You'll need to log-out and log back in again for the setting to take effect.

Make Home and End keys behave like Windows on Mac OSX

DefaultKeyBinding.dict in your ~/Library/KeyBindings folder (might need to create that folder too) with the following contents:

{

"\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraph:; // home

"\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraph:; // end

"$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:; // shift-home

"$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:; // shift-end

"^\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfDocument:; // ctrl-home

"^\UF72B" = moveToEndOfDocument:; // ctrl-end

"^$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfDocumentAndModifySelection:; // ctrl-shift-home

"^$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfDocumentAndModifySelection:; // ctrl-shift-end

}

This remapping does the following in most Mac apps including Chrome (some apps do their own key handling):

• Home and End will go to start and end of line
• Shift-Home and Shift-End will select to start and end of line
• Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End will go to start and end of document
• Shift-Ctrl-Home and Shift-Ctrl-End will select to start and end of document

Note that you will need to reboot after creating this file for it to take effect.

Useful Sites

• https://derflounder.wordpress.com/