Book Image

Command Line Fundamentals

By : Vivek Nagarajan
Book Image

Command Line Fundamentals

By: Vivek Nagarajan

Overview of this book

The most basic interface to a computer—the command line—remains the most flexible and powerful way of processing data and performing and automating various day-to-day tasks. Command Line Fundamentals begins by exploring the basics, and then focuses on the most common tool, the Bash shell (which is standard on all Linux and iOS systems). As you make your way through the book, you'll explore the traditional Unix command-line programs as implemented by the GNU project. You'll also learn to use redirection and pipelines to assemble these programs to solve complex problems. By the end of this book, you'll have explored the basics of shell scripting, allowing you to easily and quickly automate tasks.
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

Introduction to the Command Line

Learning Objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:

  • Describe the basics of a filesystem
  • Navigate a filesystem with command-line tools
  • Perform file management tasks using the command line
  • Utilize shell history and tab completion to efficiently compose commands
  • Utilize shell-editing shortcuts to efficiently work with the command line
  • Write and use wildcard expressions to manage groups of files and folders

This chapter gives a brief history of the command line, explains filesystems, and describes how to get into and out of the command line.