![Forrest logo](/images/logo.png)
system_profiler:tldr:a2de5
system_profiler: Print the system serial number.
$ system_profiler SPHardwareDataType|grep "Serial Number (system)" | awk '{ print $4 }'
try on your machine
This command retrieves the serial number of a Mac system using a combination of three utilities: system_profiler
, grep
, and awk
.
system_profiler
is a Mac utility that provides detailed information about hardware and software configurations.SPHardwareDataType
is an argument passed tosystem_profiler
to specifically retrieve hardware-related information.grep "Serial Number (system)"
filters the output fromsystem_profiler
to only show the line that contains the serial number of the system. The"Serial Number (system)"
is the search pattern used bygrep
.awk '{ print $4 }'
selects the fourth field (word) from the filtered output and prints it. This essentially retrieves the serial number of the Mac system.
So, when you run this command in the Terminal on a Mac, it will output the serial number of the system.
This explanation was created by an AI. In most cases those are correct. But please always be careful and
never run a command you are not sure if it is safe.