Summary
Below you will find a collection of tutorials on the basics of using the terminal.
Before You Start
These tutorials assume no prior knowledge of the subject.
Exercises
You can download exercises to go along with these tutorials on our Terminal exercises GitHub repository. You don’t have to know how to use GitHub to use them. Just click the green Code button in the corner and click the Download ZIP option. Then unzip the folder and open it in your text editor.
Tutorials
Introduction
Why should I use the terminal?
Learn why you should use the terminal.
Setup
Learn how to set up your terminal for macOS and Windows.
Understanding the prompt
Learn about the different parts of the prompt.
Basic commands
Change directories
cd folder-name/Move up a directory
cd ..Move into your user directory
cd ~Show files and folders in a directory
lsCreate a file
touch file-nameCreate a folder
mkdir folder-nameView file contents
cat my-file
less my-fileTips
Reuse previous commands
To reuse previous commands, press the up arrow key.
Complete the name of a directory or file
To complete the name of a directory or file in your terminal, type one or more characters, then press Tab.
Learn more about a command
man command-nameMove through text using these keyboard shortcuts
Learn how to move through text in your terminal using keyboard shortcuts.
Advanced commands
Move file or folder
mv my-file my-folder
mv first-folder second-folderRename file or folder
mv current-name new-nameCopy file or folder
cp file-name folder1
cp -R folder1 folder2Delete file
Warning: You can’t undo this action!
rm file-nameDelete folder
rmdir folder-name