One of the big things in OS X Mountain Lion is how the system handles sleeping and sleeping events. For example, Power Nap means that now, Push Notifications still work when the lid is shut provided that the system is connected to a power source. This ties into Notification Center, how the system displays those Push Notifications to users. Sure, there’s tons of fun stuff for Accessibility, Calendar, contacts, Preview, Messages, Gatekeeper, etc. But a substantial underpinning that changed is how sleep is managed.
And the handling of sleep extends to the command line. This manifests itself in a very easy to use command line utility called caffeinate. Ironically, caffeinate is similar to the sleep command, except it will keep the GUI awake in the event that Mountain Lion wants to take a nap (I’m not saying it should not be used as a replacement for sleep btw).
To just get an idea of what it does, run the caffeinate command, followed by a -t operator and then let’s say the number 2:
caffeinate -t 2
The system can’t go to sleep automatically now, for two seconds. The command will sit idle for those two seconds and then return you to a prompt. Now, extend that to about 10000:
caffeinate -t 10000
While the command runs, manually put the system to sleep. Note that the system will go to sleep manually but not automatically. Now, there are different ways that a Mac can go to sleep. Use the -d option to prevent the display from sleeping or -i to prevent the system from going into an idle sleep. The -s is similar to -i but only impactful when the AC power is connected while the -u option deals with user inactivity.
Overall, a fun little command. It’s just another little tool in an ever-growing arsenal of options.
