macOS

Reference for caffeinate, which keeps a Mac awake while a command runs or for a set time. Flags: -d display, -i idle sleep, -m disk, -s system on AC, -u user active, -t seconds, -w until a PID exits.

On Catalina, SilentKnight from Eclectic Light found problems with the Gatekeeper databases and updated them, which cleared the damaged-app message. Single-file workaround: sudo xattr -d com.apple.quarantine on the file. spctl --master-disable, LSQuarantine and replacing gkopaque.bundle did not help.

Thread from 2016 where the poster uses xattr -d -r com.apple.quarantine /Applications/APPNAME.app to strip the flag recursively. KALLT notes each download gets a unique quarantine flag, suggests right-click and Open instead, and says an app Gatekeeper reports as tampered with should be raised with its developer. Removing quarantine bypasses Gatekeeper's check, so only do it for software you trust.

Explains the different procedures for Intel notebooks with and without a T2 chip and why Intel key combinations do nothing on Apple silicon. On Apple silicon, shut down, disconnect peripherals, wait at least 30 seconds and restart. A full NVRAM reset needs a DFU restore, which wipes the SSD.

Reference for mdutil, the command-line way to check Spotlight indexing and force a rebuild. mdutil -s shows status, -i toggles indexing, and sudo mdutil -E / erases and rebuilds the index of the root volume.

User answer explaining that this error can appear when the file merely carries com.apple.quarantine. Gives a find command to locate copies of the app and a loop to print each one's xattr so you can see which is flagged. Not official Apple guidance.

Walks through using tmutil when Time Machine misbehaves: destinationinfo, latestbackup, listbackups, startbackup and stopbackup, plus local snapshot controls and tmdiagnose. From 2017, so some verbs may have changed.

Apple's admin article on /etc/nsmb.conf, a file that does not exist by default: under a [default] section, protocol_vers_map=6 stops SMB 1 and port445=no_netbios stops NetBIOS fallback for outgoing connections. Deleting the file reverts it. Apple says these are on for compatibility with third-party products, so turning them off may affect older devices; editing /etc needs sudo.

Explains that SMB 3 sessions are signed in macOS unless guest or anonymous, and that a client can set validate_neg_off=yes in /etc/nsmb.conf. Apple warns this raises man-in-the-middle exposure, so use only on secured networks.

Shows how to go beyond the Energy Saver pane with pmset: list capabilities with pmset -g cap, use -b/-c/-u/-a scope flags, restore defaults, prevent sleep with caffeinate and diagnose sleep issues with pmset -g pslog. Written for macOS 10.12, so check man pmset.

Describes the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute that Gatekeeper uses, how its text value is structured, how sandboxed apps add it to files that were never downloaded, and how to inspect it with xattr. Helpful background for damaged-app errors.

Big Sur-era thread on slow NAS shares. The main suggestion is adding [default] and signing_required=no to /etc/nsmb.conf, but others report no effect on newer macOS. Also tested: server-side SMB encryption off, iperf3 to separate network from SMB faults, wifi band changes. Turning off signing weakens security; results are mixed.

Thread about tmutil restore. Nobody confirmed what -v does; a reply guesses verbose. The useful part quotes the ss64 reference: restore behaves much like Finder with a cp-style destination, Time Machine metadata is removed from restored items, root is not strictly required and tmutil does no permission preflighting. Man pages differ between macOS versions, so run man tmutil for yours.