This summer, with macOS 14 Sonoma looming in but a few weeks, I decided it’s time to have a thorough refresh of my six command tools. This article announces the release of new versions of each, with their support for Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura and Sonoma.

In each case, if you want support for that tool on an older version of macOS, please continue to use the previous version. For these, I’m aiming at compatibility and support for the next couple of years at least, so have been busy cleaning code and dodging deprecations. Each is, of course, signed and fully notarized, and supplied in a signed Installer package.

silnite 10

By far the most popular of my tools is this command-line equivalent of SilentKnight. Ideal for deploying on fleets, or setting to run automated checks, it can write its output in regular text, XML or JSON for assimilation by other processes. Version 10 has been extensively re-written to remove defunct checks on Gatekeeper versions, and add them for Studio Display firmware. I was less certain about MRT, and after careful thought I have retained its checks, just in case Apple were ever to deploy it to address a problem preceding macOS Catalina and XProtect Remediator’s coverage. I have also augmented its ReadMe to include examples from both Intel T2 and Apple silicon Macs.

silnite version 10 is available from here: silnite10
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

alisma 4

This is a simple tool to create and resolve Finder aliases from the command line, a function that surprisingly remains lacking in macOS. It’s supplied with source code.

alisma version 4 is available from here: alisma4
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

blowhole 11

This is the original tool for writing entries in the Unified log, and has a wide range of options including the ability to write Signposts instead of normal log entries. If you want a script to record events in your Mac’s log, this is ideal.

blowhole version 11 is available from here: blowhole11
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

cintch 3

This is the command tool sibling to my Dintch and Fintch apps for checking file integrity, and remains fully compatible with their hash-based integrity checks.

cintch version 3 is available from here: cintch3
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

cmpxat 4

Another missing feature from the standard suite of tools supplied with macOS is the ability to perform a detailed comparison between the extended attributes of two files, and that’s exactly what cmpxat does. It not only reports whether there are differences, but lists them by extended attribute.

cmpxat version 4 is available from here: cmpxat4
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

unorml 5

Filling a final gap in the bundled tools is unorml, which returns strings in Unicode Normalised forms. If you have a script that needs to normalise strings, perhaps for use as file names, then this should do the job, with its choice of four forms, including the most common Forms C and D. It comes with source code.

unorml version 5 is available from here: unorml5
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

Here’s the current list of 35 of my free apps and command tools that I believe are compatible with macOS 14 Sonoma:

• Alifix
• alisma
• Apfelstrudel
• ArchiChect
• blowhole
• Cormorant
• cintch
• Cirrus
• cmpxat
• DelightEd
• Dintch
• Dystextia
• Fintch
• Metamer
• Mints
• Nalaprop
• Podofyllin
• Precize
• Revisionist
• Scrub
• SearchKey
• SearchKeyLite
• SilentKnight
• silnite
• Sparsity
• Spundle
• Stibium
• SystHist
• Taccy
• Ulbow
• unorml
• UTIutility
• Viable
• xattred
• XProCheck