Mac Terminal - disable blinking text

Working on my Mac OS X system, when I use the ls command on a remote system, that system is configured to show blinking text for all files ending with the ".sh" filename extension. If you've ever had to look at blinking text when trying to read output from an ls command you know that can be really annoying. (Is there ever a time that blinking text isn't annoying?)

So, to disable blinking text in the Mac OS X Terminal application just follow these steps:

• With the Terminal application open, click the Terminal menu on the Mac menu bar.
• Select "Window Settings..."
• When the "Terminal Inspector" dialog comes up, click the combo box at the top and select the "Display" item.
• Disable the checkbox that is labeled "Enable blinking text". If your Terminal was displaying blinking text when you started this process you'll see it stop right away.
• Close the "Terminal Inspector" dialog.

Another solution is to fix the problem on the remote system, and I'll cover that in a future post.