It forced me to start using the terminal and command-line more often.Īfter a while I realized the power of the command-line. It was like I had reverted back to using notepad to code. When I finally started using Ruby on Rails and other scripting languages (and eventually got a Mac), I was at first flabbergasted by the lack of robust GUI tooling available.

In fact, the only command-line tool I used extensively was git. It didn’t help that the IDEs I used for Java, Eclipse and Netbeans, were absolutely amazing tools: I felt I had no reason to switch to what I perceived was a more time consuming way of doing things. I used GUI applications almost exclusively during the entirety of my education and first years working professionally. It goes without saying that all commands in this tutorial are safe to use.Systems administration and ops are one of my biggest areas of technical weakness. If you are stuck and in need of help make sure you ask from someone you trust. The command rm -rf / is a classic one that you should never use, it will delete all the files in your computer. If you are not sure what a command does DO NOT type it into your terminal. The command line is a powerful tool that can significantly speed up your workflow but can also irreversibly harm your computer so make sure you use it responsibly. On Windows you can download Git here which includes a terminal.īefore we get started, you should note some DO’s and DONT’s while using the command line. On Mac OSX you can access the terminal by opening the Terminal application from your Applications folder. To access the command line, we use a terminal emulator, usually called a terminal. The command line works by typing commands against a prompt, which then gets passed to the operating system of the computer that runs these commands.

Just like Windows Explorer on Windows or Finder on Mac OSX it lets you navigate through the files and folders of your computer, but it is completely text based.

The command line is a text interface for your computer. Introduction to the command line What is the command line?

Kali linux mac terminal commands