macOS Overview

First PublishedMay 5, 2026Last UpdatedMay 23, 2026ByAtif Alam

macOS on Apple Silicon is a common operator workstation next to Linux in the cloud. This section covers tasks that do not fit the server-focused Linux library: external volumes under /Volumes, Time Machine teardown on externals, dua and eza for disk usage and listings in Terminal, OpenSSH client keys for Git over SSH (GitHub and GitLab), Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) / Full Disk Access, diskutil volume ownership, and related Homebrew CLIs.

Topics in This Section

• External Disk Permissions and Disk Usage — Diagnose orphaned UIDs, fix access (TCC, ownership), and use dua, eza, and ncdu on external drives.
• Time Machine Backup Cleanup on External Drives — Remove TM destinations, delete Backups.backupdb with tmutil, monitor space with duf / watch, and verify cleanup.
• dua Setup: Interactive Disk Usage in the Terminal — Install dua-cli, interactive dua i, aggregate mode, --ignore-dirs, and comparison with du / ncdu.
• eza Setup: Icons and Colors for Terminal Listings — Homebrew install, ~/.zshrc aliases, flags, and why eza replaces colorls on Apple Silicon macOS.
• OpenSSH Client Keys — Create, register, inspect, and compare SSH keys for GitHub and GitLab; multi-account ~/.ssh/config; HTTPS to SSH; troubleshooting.