Command Line Basics

Hello Terminal!

Exercise 1

1. Print your name to the terminal.

2. Clear your terminal after completing #1.

Solution to Exercise 1

echo Gökçe
clear

Navigating the Command Line

Exercise 2

1. Set your working directory to the root directory.

2. Set your working directory to your home directory using three different commands.

3. Find a folder on your computer using your file and folder browser, and then set your working directory to that folder using the terminal.

4. List all of the files and folders in the directory you navigated to in #3.

Solution to Exercise 1

cd /  # do not confuse `/` with `/root`. The latter is the home folder of the administrator user `root`

cd
cd ~
cd $HOME

# 3. note that some file/folder browsers can *Open Terminal Here*, e.g., Thunar
cd /usr
ls -a  # -a also includes hidden files and folders that start with .

Creation and Inspection

Exercise 3

1. Create a new directory called workbench in your home directory.

2. Without changing directories create a file called readme.txt inside of workbench.

3. Append the numbers 1, 2, and 3 to readme.txt so that each number appears on it’s own line.

4. Print readme.txt to the command line.

5. Use output redirection to create a new file in the workbench directory called list.txt which lists the files and folders in your home directory.

6. Find out how many characters are in list.txt without opening the file or printing it to the command line.

Solution to Exercise 3

cd
mkdir workbench
touch workbench/readme.txt
echo -e '1\n2\n3' >> workbench/readme.txt  # in bash, echo needs -n to account for backslash escapes
cat workbench/readme.txt
ls > workbench/list.txt
wc --chars workbench/list.txt

Migration and Destruction

Exercise 4

1. Create a file called message.txt in your home directory and move it into another directory.

2. Copy the message.txt you just moved into your home directory.

3. Delete both copies of message.txt. Try to do this without using rm.

Solution to Exercise 4

cd  # change directory again, the directory is not preserved between %%sh cells
    # compared to the bash-kernel
echo secret > message.txt
mv message.txt workbench

cp workbench/message.txt ~

mkdir trash
mv message.txt workbench/message.txt trash
# or a trash dir may already be available
# mv message.txt .local/share/Trash
# or if `trash-cli` is installed
# trash message.txt
rm -r trash workbench

For further solutions to 3 see this posting at Stack Exchange