Terminals / consoles / command line for absolute beginners

Introduction to using the commandline

This guy even colored his terminal matrix-green (image by Christina Morillo on Pexels)

You’ve probably seen the Matrix-like screens of a terminal before. Maybe some guy in a movie, wearing a black hoody, sitting in a dimly lit room, grunting “I’m in” hacking the Pentagon or something like that.

The reality, sadly, isn’t that cool. On the other hand the ability to work with a terminal is an invaluable tool in our toolbelt. Whether you are working as a developer or data scientist; a lot of software we use on a daily basis depends on the terminal. Some familiar ones include:

• Installing Python packages with pip or creating virtual environments
• Building images and running containers with Docker
• Working with git
• Executing programs
• Building your code

If you are a developer or a data scientist and want professionalize, writing production-ready code then you’ll need to be able to use the terminal for some tasks. In this article I’ll explain what a terminal is, what it does, why it exists and how you could use it to make your life easier. At the end you’ll understand what a terminal is and how it works. You’ll be able to navigate your file system, execute programs and even create files!