macOS Wrangling


2026-04-15

I hate this goddamned OS so much.

— Zane van Iperen, almost every other day.

Quarantine Bit Commands

The quarantine bit (com.apple.quarantine) is an extended attribute that macOS applies to downloaded files as a blantant attempt to force people to pay the $99 Apple Developer Taxsecurity measure. When extracting a zip, macOS typically re-applies the quarantine bit.

Remove quarantine bit from a file

1
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /path/to/file

View quarantine bit (and other extended attributes)

1
xattr -l /path/to/file

Remove quarantine bit recursively from directory

1
xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /path/to/directory

Allow dragging windows with Ctrl+Cmd

defaults write -g NSWindowShouldDragOnGesture -bool true

You’ll need to restart the entire application, i.e. Cmd+Q it.