
In this Quick Tip we briefly covered some reasons you may want to prevent your Mac from sleeping, how to use the caffeinate command, and lastly I shared some applications that available to users who may prefer the convenience of an application or may not have Mountain Lion installed on their machine. As such, it is available for both the Classic and the newer Leopard. Should I Sleep on the Mac App Store by Marcelo Leite - $1.99 The most notable benefit for this application is that it can be used with any version of Mac OS X.

Caffeine on the Mac App Store by Lighthead Software - Free.Each of these includes different features, ranging from simple time settings to more advanced facical detection via the iSight camera, so I encourage you to look through them to find what best fits your needs. Luckily, developers have listened and provided a number of convenient and compatible options. Older versions of OS X, unfortunately, do not have the ability to use this command, and the convenience of an application can be difficult to beat. To learn more about caffeinate and other ways to use the command, visit the Mac Developer Library entry on caffeinate. -t - Specifies the timeout value in seconds for which the command is valid.If the display is off, this option turns the display on and prevents the display from going into idle sleep. This is valid only when system is running on AC power. -s - Prevent the system from sleeping.

