Advertise on podcast: Taming the Terminal

We're back after a (planned) lengthy hiatus! In this instalment, Bart teaches us how to protect our secrets while working in the Terminal. Secrets can include passwords, API keys, and any other sensitive information you'd like to protect. Without the tools Bart teaches us, any secrets you type into the Terminal will be in your history file in plain text, and with AI, possibly hoovered up as training data. You'll hear me say the last episode was in 2022, but it was actually 2020. You can find Bart's tutorial shownotes over at ttt.bartificer.net/... You can download the free Taming the Terminal book at podfeet.com/tttbook. All of the versions are up to date with the new chapter, except Apple Books. As of 18 December 2025, the one in Apple Books is "in review" with the new chapter. Hopefully, by the time you look for it, they will have deemed that chapter worthy of inclusion. I just noticed that it's available in Apple Books in 51 countries! The book has 4.9 stars with 30 reviews!

In this episode of Taming the Terminal, Bart winds up our series within a series all about the Terminal command TMUX. In this final piece he teaches us first how to string commands together to create the TMUX sessions we want with the screens split and the processes running in each pane as we like them. After teaching us how to string them together he shows us how to make a little script file we can run so that we can automatically open up our TMUX sessions exactly the way we like them. This will be the last of our Taming the Terminal episodes for a while, but we'll be back after macOS Big Sur ships and is stabilized. In macOS Catalina the default shell was changed from bash to zsh and it does bring some changes to things we learned earlier in the series but it seems prudent to wait till we're over this big hump getting into Big Sur. You can find Bart's tutorial shownotes over at ttt.bartificer.net/... Don't forget, you can download the Taming the Terminal book at podfeet.com/tttbook. The book will be updated with this instalment shortly.

This week's episode of Chit Chat Across the Pond was another installment of Taming the Terminal. Two weeks ago Bart taught us the basics of a technology called `tmux`, or terminal multiplexer that allows you to access the same server in many different ways at the same time. He covered how `tmux` replaces the deprecated `screen` but he didn't go much further. In this rather light and easy-to-follow installment, he takes `tmux` up a notch and shows us how to create multiple windows, and multiple panes all within a single `tmux` session. Like I said it was super easy to understand, very visual and fun! You can listen to this week's installment by searching for Taming the Terminal in your podcatcher of choice or it's included in the full Chit Chat Across the Pond show as well. And as always you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

When Bart first started the Taming the Terminal series in October of 2015, he purposely declared every installment to be "of n" where n was not defined. It's been 3 years since there was an episode of Taming the Terminal, but today we've got a new one for you. In Taming the Terminal 36, recorded in 2016, Bart introduced us to a nifty command-line tool called screen. Screen allowed you to ssh into a server, and start a session but disconnect and come back to it without stopping the processes you were running. But in the last year, screen was deprecated by Red Hat Linux (which means it's gone from the free CentOS version as well). The good news is that it was replaced with an even more powerful tool called tmux. In this installment, Bart walks us through just how tmux solves the same problem as screen, but teases us with the knowledge that this tool has much more to offer. It was a super fun episode with lots of surprises (for me at least) and whether you followed along with the first 37 installments or not, I'm sure you'll find it useful as well. You can find Bart's fabulous shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/....

In 2017 on Taming the Terminal installment 37 of n, Bart taught us about SSH agents and the advantages of using a passphrase to further protect your SSH keys. In the intervening four years, things have changed a bit in macOS, so we decided to do a supplemental update to installment 37. We review a bit about what SSH Keys are (from installment 30) and then discuss how much easier and cleaner things are on macOS with the clean integration of your identity, passphrase and Apple's Keychain. You can find the replaced show notes for TTT 37 at ttt.bartificer.net/... If you've downloaded the Taming the Terminal book, please go to podfeet.com/tttbook to get a fresh version.

As promised, Taming the Terminal isn't over yet! Bart Busschots joins us to talk about SSH Agents. We'll talk about how Apple changed things in El Capitan so that you'll have to log into your server with your passphrase more often, and how Bart has a fix for that problem. Bart does a great job of reminding us of what we learned about SSH back in parts 29 and 30 of Taming the Terminal so it's easier to get back up to speed to follow along. And as always, Bart's full tutorial is available at ttt.bartificer.net/...

It’s been a long time since we did a Taming the Terminal episode but we’re back with episode 36 of n, screen and cron. You’ll hear me say this is episode 35, but with all these numbers flying around we got mixed up! In any case, in this installment Bart teaches us two unrelated but really cool things you can do with the Terminal in macOS or Linux. The first is cron, a tool that lets you schedule scripts to run at specific times and days. The second is screen, which is a utility that allows you to create a virtual terminal inside your regular terminal. If that sounds head explody (as Bart likes to say), it kind of is, but of course he breaks it down and shows how really clever and useful it is. You can find Bart’s full detailed tutorial at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we look at three terminal commands for interacting with the world wide web from the terminal. We'll look at a command-line based browser, and commands for downloading files and viewing HTTP headers. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we learn how to use SSH config files to automate some aspects of SSH, creating what amount to bookmarks to servers we connect to often. We'll also look at some GUIs for storing SSH connection details. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we look at how the HTTP protocol works, this is the protocol that powers the world-wide-web. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we'll look at how SSH tunnels can be used to secure all kinds of network traffic, not just remote commands and file transfers. Most people won't need the power of SSH tunnels very often, if at all, but when you do need them, you probably REALLY need them, so it's important to know what's possible, even if you don't remember the details. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

SSH can do a lot more than just run commands, and in this installment we'll discover how to use SSH to securely transfer files from one computer to another. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

By default SSH uses usernames and passwords to authenticate users, but in this installment we'll discover how to use SSH keys to make SSH both more secure and more convenient. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we introduce the Secure Shell, or SSH. SSH can do many things, but first and foremost it lets us run command, or entire command shells on remote computers securely. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...

In this installment we put everything we have learned so far about networking together, and describe a workflow for diagnosing home networking problems. As always, you can get to Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at ttt.bartificer.net/...