Basic Terminal Tutorial

In the examples below, content in small capital letters set in a monospace typeface, such as file and folder, indicate filler content, such as a file or folder from your computer. Content you’d type into The Terminal is also set in a monospace typeface, but surrounded by a light blue background.

./: The current directory.
../: The parent of the current directory.
alias: Displays all aliases (keyboard shortcuts), usually in a file called .bash_aliases, assigned to commands. Note: To run the default version of any command to which an alias has been assigned, precede it with a backslash (\). For example, running \rm in my terminal would bypass my alias of 'rm -i'.
code: Launches vs Code, assuming the shell commands have been installed. Typing code . opens the current folder in vs Code, and typing code file opens file in vs Code.
cat file: Displays the contents of file, then returns control to The Terminal.
cd: Changes directory to your home folder, which is likely ~/Users/your_name. Typing cd folder changes into folder and typing cd ../folder changes into a directory called folder in the current directory’s parent. Typing cd from anywhere in your directory tree will take you home.
clear: Clears the screen of any content, placing the cursor at the top of The Terminal’s window.
cp file.txt copy-of-file.txt: Copies the file file.txt to a new file called copy-of-file.txt
head file.html: Shows the first 10 lines of file.html
history: Displays a history of all the commands typed into The Terminal.
ls: Displays the files and folders in the current directory, excluding those that start with a dot. Typing ls -a lists all files and folders that start with and without a dot. And, typing ls -d .* lists only files and folders that start with a dot.
man command: Displays the manual for command.
mkdir new_folder: Creates a new folder called new_folder in the current directory. Using the -p flag creates any non-existing intermediate folders without having to create each of the intermediate folders individually. For example, assume folders a, b, and c don’t exist. Running mkdir -p a/b/c would create folder c inside folder b inside folder a.
mv file folder/: Moves file inside folder. mv is also used to rename a file. For example, mv file file_with_new_name renames file → file_with_new_name
more file: Render the contents of file one screenful at a time. Type q to exit.
open .: Opens the current folder (.) in macos’s Finder. Also does things like open a url in a browser. For example, open https://github.com/code-warrior launches the web address in your default browser. (In Cygwin, open’s equivalent is cygstart and in Ubuntu it’s xdg-open.)
rm file: Removes file. Some Linux and macos systems don’t have a guard on the rm command, meaning that the user isn’t asked to verify the removal of a file. Because files removed with rm aren’t retrievable, use the -i flag so you can verify that, indeed, you want to remove a file. For example, rm -i file would ask if you want to remove file?.

To recursively remove a folder, run rm -r folder; and, to forcefully and recursively remove a directory without interaction, run rm -fr folder.
sudo command: Run command as the current user with privileged access.
tail file: Shows the last 10 lines of file
touch file: Creates a new, empty file called file. If file exists, touch does nothing.
type program: Provides info about whether program is an alias, command, function, etc. Combine the -all flag — for “all locations” — with type to see everything associated with program. For example, type -all ls reveals on my system that ls is aliased to `ls --color=auto' and that it resides at /bin/ls in my file system.
which program: Locates and prints the path to program. For example, if you wanted to know where the ls program was installed, which ls would respond with /bin/ls. Consider aliasing which to type -all in order to get more info about program.