Let me show you around your new car
Oh good analogy! That's going to be helpful.
Learning 'the command line' is like learning how to drive. But before we can drive, we need a vehicle.
Let me show you around your new car.
Before we start, to save me some typing let's introduce a shortcut for 'the command line': CLI.
It stands for command-line interface. I'll use it from now on.
Terminal #
You can't drive without a car. The car is the framework that gives you the ability to drive: it has a chassis, four wheels, seats, air conditioning, and they come in a variety of models which you pick according to your needs.
In the same way, you need some sort of application to use the CLI. We call these 'terminals', and your Mac comes with one. Conveniently, it's called Terminal.
History lesson #
Terminals used to be the whole computer. The only thing it did was to be a terminal.
These days computers are a lot more powerful, and 'the terminal' is just an app. Technically we call it a terminal emulator.
There are other terminal apps #
Apple's Terminal is like a Ford Escort. It's pretty basic, it doesn't have many extras, but it comes with the job and doesn't cost you anything to drive.
If you want more features -- a better stereo, nicer wheels -- you can go shopping and get yourself a nicer model. There's iTerm 2, Warp, and a bunch of others.
You can even get them for your iPad.
But when you're just learning, stick with the simple car. I still use Terminal; it does everything that I need.
Launching Terminal #
Let's get your seat and mirrors adjusted. Launch Terminal, which is in your Mac's
/Applications/Utilities folder.
By the way, that notation with the slashes -- it means something very specific, which you'll soon understand. :-)
You'll be greeted by a fairly austere window.
I like to feel more like an old-school nerd when I'm at the CLI, so I set my default terminal to have green text on a black background. You can do that in Terminal's Settings: on the Profiles tab, select Homebrew,[1] and click Default at the bottom of the list.
I also bump up my font size, which you can do on the right under Font.
Now hit Command-N to get a new window.
đ
Tip: duplicate the default profiles #
You can modify these profiles to your heart's content. If you select one of the defaults and click the three-dots-in-a-circle icon at the bottom of the list, you can Duplicate Profile. Now if you mess it up you can just delete it and start again.
We haven't started the car yet #
It's important to note that what you're messing about with here is the Terminal application's settings. There's no harm you can do here, other than making it look ugly.
We haven't put the key in the ignition yet. Let's do that and make sure it starts.
Start the engine #
It can help to see some text in the otherwise-empty window. So let's type your first command, which I'm not going to explain. It's just a command that will fill up your window with text.
Crucially, it's totally harmless.
Type printenv and hit return.
Shut it down #
To close this window, you have a few options.
- Type
logout. - Type
exit. - Press
Control-D. - Close the window using the red button at the top right.
They all do the same thing. I prefer logout because it feels more nerdy. Control-D is also very old-school.
Closing the window feels like the least correct thing to do.
Homework #
1: Have the window close automatically #
When you use one of the first three methods, the window won't actually close. Instead you'll be left looking at this text:
Saving session...completed.
[Process completed]Figure out how to make it so that when you type logout, the window closes. Have a look around Settings, but use the internet if you're not sure.
2: Why don't I like using the red button? #
I said that closing the window using the red button felt like the 'least correct' thing to do.
Why?
Unrelated to the CLI tool that we'll learn about later. âŠī¸