Useful Apple Remote Desktop Unix Commands

Apple Remote Desktop

ARD  is the best way to manage the Mac computers on your network. Distribute software, provide real-time online help to end users, create detailed software and hardware reports, and automate routine management tasks — all without leaving your desk.  Here is a list of Unix commands that you could send: If this post helped you, PLEASE take the time to +1 it.

Unix Commands – use at your own risk
Open and Close a CD Tray	drutil tray open drutil tray close
Repair Permissions of drive	diskutil repairPermissions /
Retrive SMART Drive Status	diskutil info disk0 | grep SMART
Run “daily” script	periodic daily Run as “root” user
Run “weekly” script	periodic weekly Run as “root” user
Run “monthly” script	periodic monthly Run as “root” user
Update Prebindings	update_prebinding -root / -force Run as “root” user
Set System Volume	osascript -e “set volume 100” – Options are from 0 to 100 osascript -e “set output muted true” – changes the muted stats osascript -e “set volume output volume 80 muted false” – you can combine options
Check Battery Cycle Count	ioreg -l | grep Capacity – 10.3.8 or higher
networksetup	networksetup -help
systemsetup	systemsetup -help
airport –scan	/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport –scan
airport –getinfo	/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport –getinfo
airport –showstack	/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Resources/airport –showstack
Spotlight Serach – 10.4+ only	mdfind pdf – change “pdf” to the file extention you wish to find.
Show a list of users who have logged in	last
Set Software Update Server Address: This is a per user setting.	defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate CatalogURL http://xxx.xxx.com:8088/index.sucatalog
Remote GUI login via Apple Remote Desktop:	osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to keystroke “LOGIN_NAME”‘; \ osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to keystroke tab’; \ osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to delay 0.5’; \ osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to keystroke “PASSWORDHERE”‘; \ osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to delay 0.5’; \ osascript -e ‘tell application “System Events” to keystroke return’Replace LOGIN_NAME and PASSWORD with the proper values Run as “root” user
Change a local users password:	dscl . -passwd /Users/user_name new_password Run as “root” user
Run Software Updates Remotely	softwareupdate -i -a Run as “root” user
View all running applications	osascript -e ‘tell application “Finder” to get name of every process whose visible is true’
Flush MCX Cache For 10.4.x	rm -r /Library/Managed\ Preferences/* /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/Resources/MCXCacher -f Run as “root” user
Flush MCX Cache For 10.2-10.3	/usr/bin/nicl -t 127.0.0.1/local -delete /mcx_cache Run as “root” user
Quit Application	killall Application-Name
Login as user	osascript <<EndOfMyScripttell application “System Events”keystroke “test1″keystroke return delay 3.0 keystroke “test1” delay 3.0 keystroke tab keystroke return keystroke return end tell EndOfMyScript

Fun Commands – use at your own risk
Make Computer Speak	Say “Your Text Here”
Computer Speaks Current Date	osascript <<EOF say (current date) as string using “Cellos” EOF
Optical Tray Wave Script	for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do drutil tray open sleep 1 drutil tray close sleep 1 done
Machines sing the list of software updates.	osascript <<EOF set suList to (do shell script “softwareupdate -l”) as string say suList using “Cellos” EOF