Your Digital Companion

Friday, May 29

Getting started with the Shell

Shell in Linux (or Command prompt for Windows) refers to CLI (Command Line Interface) for providing commands or instructions to Computer.

The definition of Shell goes like this:
shell is a program that provides the traditional, text-only user interface for Linux and other Unix-like operating systems. Its primary function is to read commands that are typed into a console (i.e., an all-text display mode) or terminal window (an all-text window) in a GUI (graphical user interface) and then execute (i.e., run) them.
CLI has been the conventional way of executing instructions on a computer before the folks at Xerox invented the GUI (Graphical User Interface) which later tickled Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to gift the world with Macintosh and Windows based on GUI.
GUI revolutionized Computing because anyone by simple Point-and-Click can get their job done.

If you are a geek and want to boast  your technical prowess CLI is by far the easiest way to do it, just punch in some words and Voila! job is done!!!
Need I tell you that no matter how intuitive or easy GUI is, CLI is way way faster.
Apart from that Shell is very powerfull tool too, you can

  • Install/Uninstall a Software
  • Manage your files/folder
  • Fire up an application
and do a lot of other things.

So lets jump right into the Terminal.
In this tutorial we are going to learn how to gain access or start the terminal, subsequent actions will be covered in later posts.

Starting the terminal in Linux
Just search  for "Terminal" in the Application drawer of your Linux distro and run it, you are good to go!


Starting Command prompt in Windows

  • Search for "Command" in Start menu


  • Press "Windows Key + R" to get the Run dialog box, there in type "cmd" and hit enter

 

So, now we have started the terminal, we will learn about the various commands in upcoming posts.