The first command we’re going to look at is ls. A command is a directive to the computer to perform a specific task. When you type ls, the command line looks at the directory you are in, and then “lists” all the files and directories inside of it. Be sure to type the letter l as in “List” and not the number 1.

In the terminal, the first thing you see is $. This is called a shell prompt. It appears when the terminal is ready to accept a command.

If we typed:

$ ls

the terminal would display our current directory’s files and directories:

2014  2015  hardware.txt

The directories 2014, 2015, and the file hardware.txt are the contents of the current directory.