Terminal

Intro

Since the earliest days of computers, dumb computers called terminals would be used to send commands to supercomputers. Today, we use terminal emulators to provide us with direct, low-level access to our computers. Because of the many tools which use command-line interfaces, being proficient at using terminals and command-line environments is an important skill for web developers.

Becoming proficient in the terminal has more to do with practice than book learning. The more comfortable you are with the terminal, the more sucessful you will be as a webdev.

This tutorial will focus on Bash, a common terminal shell emulator. Windows users will use Powershell, a Windows alternative.

Please be careful with the terminal. There is no undo, so you can irreversibly damage your computer. Double check your commands before you run them. 💣NEVER run sudo rm -rf /. It will delete all of your files immediately!💣

Suggested Learning

• All of the modules from The Command Crash Course
• Command Line Cheat-sheet
• sudo explanation
• Permissions explanation and the chmod command

Requirements

• Do the following on the #requirements Discord channel to show you have passed this requirement off:
  • Explain the following terminal commands to your mentor:
    • ls
    • cd
    • mkdir
    • cp
    • mv
    • rm
  • Explain the sudo command
  • Explain the chmod and chown command, why they are important, and how they work

Extra Learning

• Command Line Power User - Requires email signup, but totally free
• Bash Cheat Sheet
• ZSH - compatible alternative to Bash
• Oh My ZSH - tools for ZSH
• Vim tutorial - A popular terminal text editor
• Nano tutorial - A simple terminal text editor

This list is by no means complete. Feel free to add an issue or put in a pull request to update it.