Learn the Command Line: Course OverviewCourse Overview

Navigating the File System

Get up and running with the command line by navigating directories and files.

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Key Concepts

Review core concepts you need to learn to master this subject

ls List

pwd Print Working Directory

mkdir Make Directory

cd Change Directory

Filesystem Structure

touch Create New File

The Command Line

Helper Commands

`ls` List

$ ls Desktop
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The shell command ls is used to list the contents of a directory. If no arguments are given, it will list the contents of the current working directory.

Navigation

Lesson 1 of 1

1
Introduction
The command line is a text interface for your computer. It’s a program that takes in commands and passes them on to the computer’s operating system to run. From the command line, you can navig…
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2
Filesystem
A filesystem organizes a computer’s files and directories into a tree structure: 1. The first directory in the filesystem is the root directory. It is the parent of all other directories and fil…
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3
ls
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…
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4
pwd
The next command we’re going to look at is pwd, which stands for “print working directory.” It outputs the name of the directory you are currently in, called the working directory. Here the wor…
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5
cd I
Our next command is cd, which stands for “change directory.” Just as you would click on a folder in Windows Explorer or Finder, cd switches you into the directory you specify. In other words, cd ch…
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6
cd II
Instead of using cd twice in order to move from 2015 to memory, we can use it once and give it a longer argument: $ cd jan/memory To navigate directly to a directory, use cd with the dir…
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7
mkdir
Now that we can traverse the existing filesystem, let’s try editing it by making directories (folders) through the command line. The command for that is mkdir: $ mkdir media The mkdir command st…
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8
touch
Now we know how to create directories through the command line, but how do we create new files? We can do this using the command touch: $ touch keyboard.txt The touch command creates a new fil…
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9
Helper Commands
Now that we’ve covered the basics of navigating your filesystem from the command line, let’s look at some helpful commands that will make using it easier! clear is used to clear your terminal, wh…
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10
Review
Congratulations! You’ve learned five commands commonly used to navigate the filesystem from the command line. What can we generalize so far? * The command line is a text interface for the comput…
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