What is the purpose of the 'micro' Unix executable on my Mac mini?

I've noticed a Unix executable called "micro" installed on my Mac Mini. Does anyone no what this does or what service / application it is associated with?



Thanks, in advance.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Mac mini, macOS 15.5

Posted on May 20, 2025 11:02 AM

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Posted on May 20, 2025 1:17 PM

Unless you know explicitly know how this micro executable came to reside in your home directory, you should move it to Trash and empty the Trash.


Micro is a terminal-based text editor written for 32 or 64-bit FreeBSD UNIX or ARM-based Linux. It is questionable whether the 64-bit direct download from the developer site would be completely compatible with macOS 15.


If one has the homebrew package manager installed with the optional Apple Command Line Tools for Xcode 16.3, the source can be downloaded and the executable built platform native. Homebrew would install the micro executable in /usr/local/bin on Intel platforms and in /opt/homebrew/bin on Apple Silicon. This would require adjustments to the Shell PATH variable to be found.


If you do not want a Terminal based text editor, there is the free trial of BBEdit that with reduced features becomes truly free after the trial. It is also in the Mac App Store. BBEdit optionally offers a bbedit Terminal utility that can be installed from its application menu.

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 20, 2025 1:17 PM in response to slim1988

Unless you know explicitly know how this micro executable came to reside in your home directory, you should move it to Trash and empty the Trash.


Micro is a terminal-based text editor written for 32 or 64-bit FreeBSD UNIX or ARM-based Linux. It is questionable whether the 64-bit direct download from the developer site would be completely compatible with macOS 15.


If one has the homebrew package manager installed with the optional Apple Command Line Tools for Xcode 16.3, the source can be downloaded and the executable built platform native. Homebrew would install the micro executable in /usr/local/bin on Intel platforms and in /opt/homebrew/bin on Apple Silicon. This would require adjustments to the Shell PATH variable to be found.


If you do not want a Terminal based text editor, there is the free trial of BBEdit that with reduced features becomes truly free after the trial. It is also in the Mac App Store. BBEdit optionally offers a bbedit Terminal utility that can be installed from its application menu.

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What is the purpose of the 'micro' Unix executable on my Mac mini?

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