iTerm2 doesn't accept do shell script and requires you to write text to its prompt. If you want to use iTerm2 instead of Terminal.app, you can check out the following answer. Otherwise, there is no 'preference' setting for users to choose iTerm2 over Terminal.app.

See: Setting iTerm2 as the default terminal (OSX Lion) Edit: I just downloaded it, and it seems to work well enough that I think Ill switch from iTerm 1: Im not sure. While it doesn't register as 'default' terminal-in general there's no such notion of a 'default terminal' in OS X-some users might choose to use it for certain URL schemes. Some users of OS X might have iTerm2 installed as a replacement for the default Terminal.app that ships with OS X. To run a shell script from within that window, simply give do script the path to the shell script: osascript -e 'tell app 'Terminal' to do script ' /path/to/script.sh''Īgain, if you require focus after that, run the second activate command from above. If you additionally require focus on this new terminal window, run after that: osascript -e 'tell app 'Terminal' to activate' The easiest and most portable way to launch a new Terminal.app window from within a shell is to run the following AppleScript command: osascript -e 'tell app 'Terminal' to do script ''' Instead, it defines default applications for certain MIME types, URI schemes, or file types. It would rely on an alternatives system, which simply doesn't work that way on OS X. The x-terminal-emulator does not exist in OS X.

Mac os terminal emulator