Herramientas
Tutorial: the terminal for beginners - your first commands
Lose your fear of the terminal by learning the commands you'll actually use every day.
The terminal looks like it's straight out of a hacker movie, but it's really just a way to give your computer instructions by typing text instead of clicking. Let's lose the fear with the commands you'll actually use.
Step 1: where am I?
pwd
pwd (print working directory) tells you which folder you're currently standing in. It's the "you are here" of a mall map, but for your file system.
Step 2: what's in here?
ls
ls (list) shows the files and folders inside wherever you are. On Windows with PowerShell, the equivalent command is dir (or ls also works in newer versions).
Step 3: move between folders
cd Documents
cd ..
cd /
cd (change directory) moves you to another folder. cd .. goes up one level (to the "parent" folder). cd / takes you to the root of the whole system. No mouse, no double-click, just text.
Step 4: create folders and files
mkdir my-project
cd my-project
touch index.html
mkdir creates a new folder. touch creates an empty file (on Windows with PowerShell, use New-Item index.html instead).
Step 5: clear the screen when you can't stand the mess anymore
clear
(On Windows: cls). It doesn't delete anything from your project, it just visually clears the terminal. Use it freely whenever the screen starts feeling like a window covered in sticky notes.
What did you just learn?
- How to know where you are (
pwd) and what's there (ls). - How to move between folders with
cd. - How to create folders (
mkdir) and files (touch) without touching the mouse.