Command-line Application

The goal is to have access to a command-line application, which we’ll use to programmatically interface with our computers.

Installation and Configuration

The choice of command line tool depends on your operating system:

• Mac users who don’t already have a preferred command-line application are encouraged to use the built-in Terminal application (no need to download anything, although you may want to optionally customize the Terminal appearance as desired).
• Windows users who don’t already have a preferred command-line application are encouraged to install Git Bash, which will allow Windows users to write the same unix-style commands as Mac users.

Success Criteria

If successful, you should be able to use your command-line application to issue the commands below, which are some of the most relevant and common commands for navigating the filesystem.

Change directories, for example to the Desktop:

cd ~/Desktop

What is the present working directory? Where are we right now?

pwd

List the files and folders in this place:

ls -al

You should now also be able to use your command-line application to complete the “Command-line Computing” Exercise, which will introduce you to additional commands.