$ Basic Command Lines for Budding Developers

H3ya everyone, this is me, Falguni Sarkar, a sophomore at Siliguri Institute of Technology, Siliguri. I’m here with my first article about some basic command lines that every budding developer should know.

Command Line:

• an essential tool for software development.
• useful to execute a wide variety of programs on your computer.
• a tool for interacting with a computer using text (also known as a text interface).

Unix Commands is a type of command that is used in Linux and macOS.

Commands are instruction given to the computer into what is called a terminal.

• NOTE: 1. For Windows, we use POWERSHELL or GIT BASH.
• NOTE: 2. Here we will use the word directory (plural: directories) in place of folder often. They both are the same thing, and they’re used interchangeably.

Commands:

• $ start . (for windows) or $ open . (for Linux/macOS)
  — Opens File Explorer where we use GUI to manipulate the Files or Folders/Directories.
• $ pwd
  — stands for Print Working Directory.
  — On the command line, it is important to know the directory you’re working. Here comes pwd command to check that.
  — When you execute the pwd command, all the directories from the root directory to the current directory are displayed.
• $ ls
  — when moving between directories, it would be convenient if we could see the list of files and directories in the current directory. ls command is used for the same.
  — it is important to note that ls command will only display the files and directories that are direct children of the current directory.
  — to read hidden files give the command: $ ls -a
• $ cd
  — stands for Change Directory.
  — if you execute cd without specifying a directory or cd ~, you can move to what is called a home directory.

(i) $ cd directory_name command helps you to move to another specified directory.

(ii) $ cd .. command let you move back to your previous folder.

• $ mkdir directory_name
  — you can create a new directory using mkdir directory_name command as well.
• $ touch filename.extension
  — you can create an empty file of any type.
• $ cat filename.extension
  — it displays the text content of the file.
• $ cp file_to_copy new_file_name
  — used for copying files.
• $ cp -r directory_to_copy new_directory_name
  — used for copying directories.
  — -r stands for a recursive function.
  — important: not applying -r will result in an error and the command will not be executed.
• $ rm filename.extension
  — used for deleting files.
• $ rm -r directory_name
  — used for deleting the non-empty directory.
• $ rmdir directory_name
  — used for deleting an empty directory.

Photo by Sam Dan Truong on Unsplash

Tips & Tricks:

• ctrl + l clears the terminal.
• tab helps for auto-completion.
• ~ means you’re in the root or home folder/directory.
• $ sign denotes it’s a command at any site you check.
• up and down arrows help you to get the command history to use it again as a new command.

My article is inspired by:

• One month — Command Line Course
• Progate — Command Line Course
• Zed Shaw’s Command Line Crash Course

(If you follow them, you will be highly benefitted.)

Photo by Prateek Katyal on Unsplash