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Comment by Rezo | Hacker News Reader

If you're used to the Mac's "force app to quit" Command-Option-Esc shortcut, it won't work from the touchbar if the app is unresponsive:

https://twitter.com/technosucks/status/800831482608484352

"You might not be able to use the Esc button in the Touch Bar if the app you're using becomes unresponsive." https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT207358

Fortunately you can still force the Mac to shut down with the Touch ID button after it locks up.

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"If you need to use Esc to force an app to close, you can switch to another app and try Option-Command-Escape. You can also choose Apple menu > Force Quit." https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT207358

Sometimes when I use XQuartz and Inkscape or some other X11 app on Mac, it will freeze such that you can't switch apps or use the Apple menu. Option-Command-Esc used to work...

In the video linked above the Apple menu also didn't appear to work, despite the mouse cursor moving, which matches my experiences.

Sometimes when I use XQuartz and Inkscape or some other X11 app on Mac, it will freeze such that you can't switch apps or use the Apple menu. Option-Command-Esc used to work...

Exactly - what not everyone realizes is that the top menu is rendered and events from it are dispatched into the process of the current (active) application. If that thing refuses to return from an event handler dispatched from the main thread's run loop, (i.e. most cases where program has hung), you can't use the Apple menu.

Or ctrl-click the app in the dock and push option when the menu comes up.

Heh, that makes me think about Finder that is always open. What if Finder is the only app you have open, and it hangs?

Cmd+space (spotlight) -> calculator (or whatever) and then force-quit finder :p

It'd be nice if Apple had an app simply called Force Quit :)

Click the apple in the top left corner -> Force Quit.

Sometimes this simply doesn't work - it's bizarre but the apple menu is actually part of the App that's running it.

Remapping Caps Lock to ESC might resolve that. Enabling this remap is certainly the first thing I'll do when mine shows up.

It will. I have remapped Caps Lock to Escape and I can trigger Force Quit that way (Cmd+Alt+Caps Lock)

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