Bash basics

TIP

If you're working on Windows, this guide assumes you're working in WSL. There's a quickstart guide to setting up WSL in the installation steps.

Running a command

Open a terminal and run

echo "Hello, Bash!"

to print a cheery message in the console.

Create a directory

Create a Repos directory with

mkdir Repos

Change directory

Enter your new directory with

cd Repos

Chain commands

You can chain commands with &&

mkdir notes && cd notes

Make a new file

Make a new file with

touch note1.txt

Make multiple files with

touch note2.txt note3.txt

List a directory

List the contents of the current directory with

ls

or some other directory by passing its path

ls todos

Move a file

Move a file with

mv todo2.txt todos

Rename a file

Rename a file with the mv command

mv note2.txt todo2.txt

Delete a file

Delete a file with

rm note3.txt

Delete a folder

Delete a whole directory with rm and some options

rm -rf todos

DANGER

The todos folder and everything it contains will be deleted without going into the recycle bin. Once it's gone, you can never get it back.