Into the Terminal

This lab will explore one of the most important tools we’ll use all year: the Terminal. While it may seem complicated at first, it will quickly become your go-to tool for computer science class. The Terminal is what we’ll use to navigate our filesystem, run code files, install software, and do all kinds of other tasks.

👾 💬 FYI

In this lab, we will just use $ to represent the terminal prompt unless the path to the current directory is important. If you see this in the lab:
$ ls
some-directory some-file.txt
but your computer shows something like this:
COMPUTER: terminal_lab username$ ls
some-directory some-file.txt
don’t worry. As long as you see the $ at the end, it means you can put in new commands to your Terminal.

[0] Terminal Adventure Lab

💻 Open a new Terminal window and enter each command with a $ one by one. Just be sure you do not type the $.

$ cd Desktop/cs9/unit_00
$ git clone https://github.com/the-isf-academy/lab_00_terminal_adventure.git
$ ls
lab_00_terminal_adventure	 
$ cd lab_00_terminal_adventure

You just copied some code from GitHub onto your computer.

💻 Let's have a look:

$ ls
adventure	    returnToShip.py

returnToShip.py is a runnable Python file (you can tell by the .py at the end).

💻 Run it to see what happens:

$ python returnToShip.py
  Your adventure has only just begun. You are not yet ready to return
  to the ship. More secrets await you in the ocean's depths.

👾 💬 Your challenge is to see if you can get the treasure, using just the Terminal
Use Terminal to explore the contents of the adventure directory.

💻 Begin by going into into the adventure directory:

$ cd adventure
$ ls
seafloor	sinking.txt

sinking.txt is a text file, so we can read it.

💻 Try using the cat command:

$ cat sinking.txt

Treasure

⚡✨ You will end this lab by collecting the treasure!

Continue exploring into the depths of the sea to find it.

Return to the lab_00_terminal_adventure directory and run the returnToShip.py file to see if you were successful. If you were unable to escape the monster, try again!

Before moving on, check in with a teacher and answer the following prompts in your notebook:

What are 3 functions of the Terminal?

Compare navigating the file system via the Terminal v. the Finder.

[1] Terminal Commands

Below are some Terminal commands which might come in handy on your adventure.

Command	What it does
`ls`	List what’s in the current directory.
`cd ~`	Go to your home directory
`cd somewhere`	Go to `somewhere`
`cd ..`	Go to the parent directory
`open file.txt`	Opens `file.txt` with its default program
`cat file.txt`	Prints out the contents of `file.txt`
`python x.py`	Runs the Python program `x.py`
`mv old.txt new.txt`	Renames a file from `old.txt` to `new.txt`. Also works for directories.
`mv file.txt dir`	Moves a file to directory `dir`.
`mv dir1 dir2`	Moves `dir1` to `dir2` or renames if `dir2` doesn’t exist.
`cp old.txt new.txt`	Copy a file from `old.txt` to `new.txt`.
`mkdir bag`	Creates a new directory called `bag`
`pwd`	Prints the path to where you are in the filesystem
`rm file.txt`	removes (deletes) the file `file.txt`
`rm -d dir`	removes (deletes) the directory `dir`
`rm -r dir`	recursively removes (deletes) the directory `dir` and all subdirectories and files within that directory. Be careful, this is a powerful tool!

More terminal commands

These are just for fun. There’s lots more–ask your teachers!

Command	What it does
`say hello`	Makes the computer say hello (Mac only)
`cat sinking.txt	say`
`cal`	Shows you a monthly calendar
`banner hello`	Just try it