micky@garden:~/terminal-101$cd ..

learning exercise · shell basics

Terminal 101: learn to navigate

The terminal and the file explorer are two views of the same thing — that's the whole trick. Type cd, ls, and mkdir on the left and watch the explorer follow; click a folder on the right and see exactly which command the click was hiding. Five small exercises, a sandboxed fake filesystem, nothing on your machine is touched.

five exercises

Type on the left. Watch on the right.

The reference cards introduce the four commands; each exercise ticks itself off the moment you type the right one. Clicking around the explorer is allowed (and instructive), but only typed commands count. Use the Mac / Win toggle on the terminal to practice the Windows flavors (dir, cd) too.

where am I?

pwdprint working directory

Prints the full path of the folder you're standing in.

on Windows: cd

what's here?

lslist

Lists the files and folders inside the current folder.

on Windows: dir

move around

cd <folder>change directory

Steps into a folder. cd .. climbs back up one level.

create a folder

mkdir <name>make directory

Creates a new folder right where you are.

  1. Find yourself
  2. Look around
  3. Step inside a folder
  4. Climb back up
  5. Plant a folder of your own

Exercise 1 · Find yourself. Every terminal session starts somewhere. Print the full path of the folder you're standing in.

hint: pwd — clicking the explorer doesn't count; exercises only tick when you type.

Terminal — zsh, sandboxed
gardener
welcome.txt
clicks run cd in the terminal