Command Line Interface

Command Line Topics

• command line basics
  • getting around the file system
  • finding and manipulating files
• other command line tools
• possibly shell scripting

Motivation

Terminal

On OSX, we access the command line interface using an application called Terminal.

Open it. It’s probably under Applications → Utilities. →

Terminal vs GUI

• this is basically an alternative interface to your computer
• you can do a lot of things in terminal that you can do by clicking through folders, windows, and applications with your trackpad/mouse
• it’s primarily text based input and output - you're using language to control your computer.

Demo: A Quick Tour

In OSX… how do you? →

• create, copy, edit, and list files (finder, TextEditor)
• see processes, stop processes (Activity Monitor)
• find files (finder, spotlight)

Welllllll… you can do all of that through the terminal!

Entering Commands