How can I get the Mac Terminal to not beep?

I'd like to prevent the Mac Terminal program from beeping, for example when there are multiple possible completions when I hit TAB. I looked in the preferences, but there's nothing about beeping.

Ethan

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 2 781

Answers

In OS X Leopard (10.5 and later)

Open Terminal.
On the menu go to Terminal > Perferences.
Open Settings > Advanced
Un-check the "Audible Bell" option. (You can also set "visible bell" which will cause your terminal to flash instead of beep)

In OS X Tiger (10.4 and earlier):

Open Terminal.
On the menu go to Terminal > Window Settings.
In the Terminal Inspector window click on the drop-down list and select Emulation.
Un-check the "Audible Bell" option. (You can also set "visible bell" which will cause your terminal to flash instead of beep)

dogbane

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 3 771

Is that for Tiger? There's no Window Settings option in Leopard... – Jon – 2008-12-30T08:56:36.503

@Jon: Yes, that does not appear to be on Leopard. – ayaz – 2008-12-30T09:34:14.587

4Under Leopard, the same settings are avaliable under Terminal > Preferences, under the Settings > Advanced tabs. – None – 2009-09-24T02:34:50.093

I'm presuming you have Leopard, whose terminal is greatly improved over Tiger's.

Terminal menu --> Preferences --> Settings tab --> Advanced --> Bell.

Untick "Audible bell"

(btw, mine doesn't beep as far as I can tell, even though that setting is enabled for me)

Jon

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 383

It should play the standard sound warning, configurable in system preferences -> sound -> sound effects tab – Agos – 2010-01-31T01:00:44.480

put "set bell-style visible" in your ~/.bashrc

Zoredache

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 18 453

That only affects Bash, not everything. – Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen – 2010-01-05T14:28:50.697

1@ThorbjørnRavnAndersen, it’s probably better to configure specific programs to not beep for specific events, rather than disabling the terminal bell altogether, since it’s usually used for things that may need the user’s attention. Going the other direction, if all beeps in the terminal are annoying, there’s a good chance the user will also find beeps annoying in other applications, in which case they should consider muting “sound effects” system-wide in System Preferences > Sound. – Chris Page – 2012-01-05T21:07:28.107

See also inputrc, show-all-if-ambiguous and show-all-if-unmodified in the Bash man page, to specifically avoid beeping during autocompletion. x-man-page://1/bash – Chris Page – 2012-06-15T00:00:44.653

The process is a bit different in El Capitan.

OS X El Capitan (10.11)

Open Terminal.
On the menu go to Terminal > Preferences.
Choose the Profile tab
Choose the profile from the left panel.
Un-check the Audible Bell option.

Steps after opening the preferences

Mojtaba Komeili

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 21

To do it via terminal:

TERMINAL_PLIST="$HOME/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist"
TERMINAL_THEME=`/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print 'Default Window Settings'" $TERMINAL_PLIST`
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set 'Window Settings':$TERMINAL_THEME:Bell false" $TERMINAL_PLIST
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set 'Window Settings':$TERMINAL_THEME:VisualBellOnlyWhenMuted false" $TERMINAL_PLIST

balupton

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 243

System preferences --> sound --> then choose an alert sound [choose what you want]

then quit and reopen the terminal.

benjamin

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation:

Use ITERM2 and RX click to change all the settings (you might enable visual bel, to see when you make some mistakes without being bothered by sounds)

mario

Posted 2008-12-30T08:48:09.997

Reputation: 101