It is a text based interface to your system. It takes in commands and gives you feedback or performs actions based on the commands. These commands are the command line equivalent to a GUI when accessing or editing files and directories.
There are a few commands that allow you to traverse directories in the terminal. Some very useful ones to remember are:
pwd - print working directory, current location
ls - list of files in current directory
cd pathname - changes directory to the specified pathname
cd .. - goes up/backwards in directory
tree - displays file structure
If you ever need an explanation of what any of the linux commands do there is a manual page for that. In order to access it and some other useful commands just do the following:
man
man -k
/
n - After performing a search within a manual page, select the next found item.
Everything in the terminal is either a directory or a file so some of the most useful commands other than navigation commmands are the commands on file manipulation.
Here are some helpful commands:
mkdir pathname - this creates a directory
touch filename.type - this creates a file with the specified file type
rm -rf pathname - a recursive and forced way to delete directory and everything in it
mv filename.type newfilename.type - moves a file or renames it depending on if you specify a directory after the first filename argument
The terminal is an invaluable tool and resource that every developer should learn and get comfortable with. It is the equivalent to a dev of a mechanic going under the hood of a vehicle, you can see the inside of these directories and paths and configure, install, remove, edit and update the things inside.
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