Introduction to the Terminal Course (How To)

Apps for ordinary users use GUIs you control with a mouse or touchscreen. But developers know the most powerful way to interact with computers is by using text in the terminal. This course will set you on the path to terminal mastery!

What you'll learn

• The terminal
• Command-line interfaces
• Shells

The Command Shell

In this stage, we'll describe what Terminal programs are and how they let you interact with shell programs and command-line interfaces.

Chevron 9 steps

• What is the Terminal?

  3:40

• Terminal Quiz

  2 questions

• The Shell

  4:48

• The Shell

  4 questions

• Command Arguments

  4:23

• Command Options

  1:56

• Command Arguments and Options

  4 questions

• Shortcuts

  3:41

• Shortcuts

  5 questions

Directories and Files

Graphical programs like File Explorer or the Finder allow you to create, copy, move, and delete files and folders. But you can also carry out all these operations in the terminal.

Chevron 8 steps

• Directories

  7:36

• Directories

  4 questions

• Relative Paths

  2:46

• Absolute Paths

  4:56

• Paths

  6 questions

• Directory Shortcuts

  6:00

• Wildcard Expansion

  4:25

• Shortcuts and Wildcards

  6 questions

Common Commands

In this stage, we'll introduce some helpful commands you can run in the terminal.

Chevron 10 steps

• Viewing Files With "less"

  2:51

• Working With Files

  7:21

• Working with Files

  7 questions

• File and Directory Naming Conventions

  3:39

• The Manual

  4:16

• Other Things to Explore

  4:53

• instruction

  Accessing the Terminal on Your Computer

• instruction

  Using Shell Commands on Windows

• Summary

  1:28

• Other Commands

  8 questions