Command Line

caution

Proceed with caution: This page is still under construction!

What is the command line?#

The command line is an interface that allows you to provide text-based commands for computers to execute.

Does my computer have a command line?#

Every computer comes equipped with a system-wide command line interface (CLI) called a shell. Depending on the operating system of your computer, the default shell is:

Z shell or Bash on macOS and Linux
PowerShell on Windows

These shells run programs within a terminal application, such as Terminal on macOS. While shells all serve a similar purpose, they are each different in various ways, including their command prompts. The prompts are

% for Z shell
$ for Bash
> for PowerShell

What makes something a command?#

A command is made up of a sequence of arguments. In most cases, the first argument of a command is the command name, so we will consider a command the combination of two conceptual parts:

The command name to express the program you wish to use, and
The arguments the program should consider (oftentimes split into options).

Example commands in Bash#

Let's consider a few example commands using Bash, meaning all commands will begin after the $ prompt in a terminal. For this set of examples, suppose we start inside a folder called parent that has a child folder, child. Then, the child folder has two .txt files inside of it. This tree diagram may help visualize the nested file structure we've described:

parent
└── child
    ├── file-1.txt
    └── file-2.txt

To navigate from inside the parent folder to the child folder, run

$ cd child

which calls cd with an argument to go into the directory child. Then, if you'd like to see the contents of child, run

$ ls

which calls ls without arguments to list of the two files file-1.txt and file-2.txt inside of child. When it's time to navigate back to parent, run

$ cd ../parent

which calls cd with an argument to go up one directory (the ..) in the tree and into the parent directory (the /parent).

For Experienced Users#

Once you feel more comfortable with the concept of command line tools, and have had some real experience using one for a project, it's time to step up your game. While many avenues are available, these referenced links include useful collections of materials to make your command line experience even better: