Helpful Unix Commands for ARD

If you work in an environment with multiple Apple computers, it’s sometimes easiest to monitor and manage them through the use of Apple Remote Desktop.  Here are a series of unix commands that you may find helpful.

Mass Login – send a command that logs you into all of the machines with the click of a button:
(just copy and paste the code below, changing out the user name and password where appropriate; enter root for the user and run the command on the designated computers)

Tip: If this doesn’t give you the desired results, try rebooting the machine remotely because sometimes a user has the cursor in an unexpected location/field

osascript -e 'tell application "SecurityAgent" to activate'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "Bluetooth Setup Assistant" to quit'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "<username>"'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke return'
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to delay 0.9'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke "<userpassword>"'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to delay 0.9'; \
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to keystroke return'

Set Safari Homepage – send a command that designates a specific webpage for a user’s homepage in the Safari web browser
(just copy and paste the code below, editing the URL where appropriate; enter the local user name of the account you want to apply the settings to and run the command on the designated computers)

defaults write com.apple.Safari HomePage 'http://www.'

Control How Safari Opens – send a command that designates the behavior for both a new window and a new tab in the Safari web browser
(just copy and paste the code below, editing the number according to the guide listed below; enter the local user name of the account you want to apply the settings to and run the command on the designated computers)

New Window/Tab Behavior Integer Guide:

• 0 = Homepage
• 1 = Empty Page
• 2 = Same Page
• 3 = Bookmarks
• 4 = Top Sites

defaults write com.apple.Safari NewWindowBehavior -int 0
defaults write com.apple.Safari NewTabBehavior -int 0

Open a Folder – send this command at the user level to open a folder such as documents

open users/p1user/documents

Delete All Items in Downloads Folder – send this command at the user level to automatically delete all of the items from a user’s downloads folder

cd ~/Downloads
rm -rv *

Empty the Trash – use this command to automatically empty the trash bin

rm -rf ~/.Trash/*

Open Another Volume – use this command to open another volume

open /Volumes/"Name of Volume"

Have any other useful custom unix commands?  Share in the comments below!