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Is there a command I can run from the command line in OS X to get the current CPU temperature and/or the fan speed(s)?

To be more specific, I'd like to be able to get the same info available in the iStat widget under the Fans and Temps tabs on the command line.

I'd like to be able to find these values at the command line so it could be scripted and plugged into a monitoring setup on my Mac - I have a data-nerd desire to collect and graph these values (and other stats) on my Macbook over time.

On Linux, it seems like this would be possible by reading a pseudo-file under the /proc directory, but I'm not sure how to do the equivalent on OS X (if it exists).

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It's not an OSX solution, but coretemp works for Windows: appnee.com/core-temp/ – SoleWe Aug 1 '12 at 2:06

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up vote 10 down vote accepted

This is totally possible using the command line app included with the free programm Temperature Monitor. Assuming you installed it in /Applications you'd need to run the following:

/Applications/TemperatureMonitor.app/Contents/MacOS/tempmonitor -c -l -a

If you need more information, there's a very helpful blogpost which I referred to since I didn't remember everything anymore.

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Thanks for this. I take it if I need to install this third-party app for it, there isn't a known built-in way to do the same? – matt b Jun 21 '12 at 15:30
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No, I don't think there is. I've used that same program to display the values with Geektool for a time but didn't find any information about a built-in tool. Mind you that that was more than a year ago, so there ,ight be now. I doubt it though. – GhostLyrics Jun 21 '12 at 22:31

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