How to Installing Google Command Line Tools

We'll take a look at the Google Command Line Tools and how you can use them to access Google's online service offerings right from the Terminal on your Mac. For now, we'll take a look at how to install these command-line programs on your Mac and get them operational.

What are the Google Command Line Tools ?

These tools are a set of applications that, once installed, allow you to interact with many of Google's service offerings right through the Terminal application on your Mac. You can do things like post a blog item to Blogger, add an item to Google Calendar, search your contacts on Google Contacts, edit documents in Google Docs, upload photos to Picasa, or post a video to YouTube.

Downloading the Files

Head over to the Google CL page and download the latest file that ends in ".tar.gz" (the Linux and Mac version).

Installing on your Mac

Next, we need to install the latest version of Python on your Mac. To do this, make sure that you've downloaded and installed either Homebrew or MacPorts. Once one of those has been installed, type the following command for your particular package management system:

For Homebrew:

brew install python

For MacPorts:

sudo port install python

Next, unzip the downloaded files, and navigate to the root folder containing the download after unziping the files. Then, type the following command to run the setup:

sudo python setup.py install

This setup script will automatically complete the installation process for you, outputting various odds and ends to the screen as the process completes.

Authenticating and Loging in

Now, all that's left to do is to authenticate with your Google account, and complete the login process. In order to log in, you just have to specify a task, so type the following command:

google calendar today

Once you do this, you'll be prompted to enter your username (make sure that you enter the @gmail.com portion of the email as well), then press the enter key.

Next, your web browser will open to a Google sign-in page (if the sign-in page was not displayed, you can copy the link shown in the Terminal and paste it into your web browser). Log in, and then select the "Allow Access" button. Finally, go back into the Terminal and press the enter key.

If you receive a message back containing the email address of the logged-in account, then you have successfully set up Google CL on your Mac, and given it proper access to your account. If you receive an error message, try this step again to re-authenticate your Google account with GoogleCL.