Command line

The command line

The command line (also called command-line interface, command prompt, shell), is a text-based application for viewing, handling, and manipulating files on your computer.

The general syntax of any command in the command line is: command + [optional parameters] + [optional flags]

• Command: Name of the command, e.g. cd, git add
• Parameter: Specifies the command, e.g. cd Desktop Desktop specifies in which directory to move to
• Flag: Optional boolean parameter, e.g. ls -l or dir /b

Note: The commands, parameters and flags are always separated by whitespaces.

More important note: Avoid file names containing whitespaces, because that might lead to problems when executing commands, e.g.

$ cd ./my folder would be interpreted as a command with two parameters ./my and folder.

Setting quotation marks would solve the problem as well, but it's better to generally avoid whitespaces in file paths.

Commands

The commands on Windows and Unix (Max OS, Linux) systems are a bit different. If you want to use the Unix commands on Windows, use the PowerShell or the GitBash.

Windows command	Mac OS / Linux command	Description	Example
exit	exit	close the window	exit
cd	cd	change directory, When changing hard drives (C:\ to M:) execute M:\ afterwards	cd M:\Documents
cd	pwd	print working directory	cd
dir	ls	list directories/files	dir
copy	cp	copy file	copy c:\test\test.txt c:\windows\test.txt
move	mv	move file	move c:\test\test.txt c:\windows\test.txt
mkdir	mkdir	Make (new) directory	mkdir testdirectory
rmdir (or del)	rm	Remove directory	del c:\test\test.txt
rmdir /S	rm -r	Remove directory recursivly	rm -r testdirectory