How do I get readable system information at the command line?

Question

I'm using High Sierra. I often have to copy & paste system information in a email or in a forum message. For this reason, I'd like a simple and easy way to get info on my operating system and my hardware at the command line. Currently I use

$ system_profiler > foo.txt

and then I search into foo.txt for the information I need. However, the process is incredibly slow, and not very automatic. Is there a better way? I only need OS, SDD/RAM & chipset info - I couldn't care less about sound or Firewalls, for example.

Answer 1

You can check data types by listing them with system_profiler -listDataTypes and then use them to get specific info. For example to get info about chipset & RAM run system_profiler SPHardwareDataType.