Intro to the Command Line

Workshop Details

• Workshop Link http://steamcamproom0.hacker.fund/
• Link for students who want to follow along: https://repl.it/@zfogg/intro-to-the-commandline
• Times:
  • 11:30 - 12:30 PDT
  • 14:30 - 15:30 EDT

Unfortunately we won't have admin access on an online REPL :( and, it would be too messy to have everyone playing in the same REPL.

So I will do a lot of this through screenshare, and students can follow along if they like!

Use the link above^ to do that :)

Ask questions in the chat if you need to!

Further resources:

• Installing Linux on a Chromebook
  • https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9145439?hl=en
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RPtJ9UyHS0
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxuRxtrO2Ag

Workshop Outline

Timline: 55mins

CLI History

10 mins

• REPLs
• teletype, typewriters
• CLI HCIs
• Terminals and shells

Standard commands

10 mins

• UNIX, Linux, bash
• echo, cat, ls, rm, cp, mv, mkdir, touch
• REPL controls
  • history: up, down
  • history: search Ctrl-R
  • Ctrl-C
• Commands and arguments
  • --help, -h
  • man
  • curl, wget
  • ping, telnet

Basic usage

10 mins

• Working directory
• Moving around the filesystem
• Making directories and files

Variables

05 mins

• PATH, PWD, HOME, USER
• local variables
• set, unset, export

Bash REPL coolness

10 mins

• return codes
  • [ -d "$HOME" ] && echo "my home is $HOME" || echo " I have no home :("
  • true, false
  • $?
• Piping and redirecting
  • cat file.txt | less
  • more < file.txt
• Read through and explain the scripts i wrote in ./scripts
  • Use them with the skills we just learned
• If we have time (screenshare):
  • Expansion
  • !!, !!2, !!$
  • for f in *.txt; do cp "$f" "${f:r}.text"; done
  • telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

Q & A, Project Ideas

10 mins

• What can you do with these skills?
• How do most people work?
• What other type of CLI