Intro to the Linux Terminal Part 1: Navigating in the Terminal

[Idjoq]

I want to ask you something I really need. In my school they installed Linux but the terminal is gone. It because of the reasons students creating their own usernames, escaping from the teachers locking. So I'm asking you where can I get back the terminal. Please help me. Thank you. :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@Idjoq If the administrators removed the terminal, wouldn't you get into trouble for trying to circumvent their wishes?

There are ways to get to a terminal without having it installed, but if it's going to cause you trouble at school, I'd rather not go into it.

[Idjoq]

@thisweekinlinux Not really, you can msg me. Of course I am not trying to make you troubles, but I live in Macedonia, so... Personally I first made my username because I kept school works in Text editor files. So please help me. :) thank you for your time!

[jennifertsanderson]

I have leopard and I'm trying to find out how to view the folders like you did through your "places" on your tool bar. I'm in a ssh server, so how can i view my public_html files in folder view? Thanks, great videos :)

[MsSaeed28]

can any one tell me about the program used it to record ?

[MsSaeed28]

@MsSaeed28 i find it :D GVCE :)

[JamerTheProgrammer]

Just out of curiosity...What keyboard are you using?

[Axbent]

I cant read the terminal in this vid, too small text, not even in full screen

[CaptainAndrewWiggins]

is it just me or is this guy a paragon of tutoring excellence?

[KWallace2010]

@CaptainAndrewWiggins I couldn't agree more with u my friend. his videos are beyond efficient. logistical masterpieces.

[likearollinstone85]

Your videos are very good!

I think it would help many people if you showed them how to refer to "man ls" etc

[Vorbis5]

WHOA Great vid!!!!!!

[Ograws]

What is ''pwd'' again?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Ograws "print working directory" -- shows the directory you're currently working in.

[Ograws]

@thisweekinlinux Thanks do you like Urban Terror?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Ograws I do. We used to play on a server run by one of the people in the community a while back, but I just haven't had time to do it lately.

[Genomaza9]

this was very useful, and a great tutorial, i just have a question, can you do those basic actions like you would on windows, like just making a new file or copying it or moving it without using the terminal and all the commands?

[thisweekinlinux]

@Genomaza9 you can indeed. You can do it within Nautilus (or whatever file browser you use). If it's not in your /home directory, you just have to run it with gksu or gksudo.

[vizi0123]

we cant see the terminal!!! Take yourself out of the screen!!!!

[oldakustikblues]

this reminds me when i was little and had to run my games from msdos

[nasriazd]

thanks, useful stuff

[cakelover33]

i just wanna learn how to install libre office

[thisweekinlinux]

@cakelover33 there's a PPA available for it now! webupd8.org/2011/01/install-li­breoffice-in-ubuntu-from.html

[cakelover33]

@thisweekinlinux Thank you so much fine youtube person to whom i shall unsubscribe and resubscribe because your so awesome.

[thisweekinlinux]

@cakelover33 not a problem. Hope you enjoy LibreOffice!

[cakelover33]

@thisweekinlinux i am Thanks! :D

[smithrmichael1997]

@scorici Probably would be rm -r *.pdf to recursively delete all PDFs.

[any5dollarfootlong]

I have been using Linux for so long that I forgot how to change directories in Windows! (similar, but not quite)

[GIMPtricks]

I only started hyperventilating twice ;). I'm a pictures, not words girl. But will get the hang of it.

I couldn't see it properly even on full screen so a few questions. What is a tilda? Is it this ~ ?

You type pwd, why and what does it mean?

When you make a new file you should type in touch, but when you make a new directory you type mkdir?

Anyway, thanks for these. Probably use the GUI when I can but do want to get to know this for all those scary sudo commands.

[thisweekinlinux]

@GIMPtricks Sorry it was difficult to read these. In the following ones I increased the font size. :)

The tilda is indeed the ~ key.

PWD stands for "print working directory" -- it basically shows you what directory you're currently doing things in.

Absolutely right. touch makes a file, mkdir makes a directory.

[GIMPtricks]

@thisweekinlinux

Now it all makes sense. Thank you so much!!

I did watch the beginning of the following one and it's all very clear. :)

[Lynnc83]

awesome

[scorici]

In windows I would use a command like this: del /s *.pdf

that means it will delete only the files with the .pdf extension in all subdirectories but will not remove any directory , now in bash I don't know the alternative without removing the whole directory and I don't wanna do that. Can someone help me please? I really need this command for saving time and effort.

[thisweekinlinux]

@crankyhenk awesome! I think I've got 4 parts of it up now, hopefully they help a little.

[PisTTasha]

thanQ Man ....

but What is the difference between vim & nano

[thisweekinlinux]

@PisTTasha Keep watching this series! Part 3 (uploaded about a month ago) deals with Nano and Vim. :)

[spamerr]

probably will be nice tutorial series. To interest GUI fans you actually can, at the end of each video, quickly show some more advanced stuff. Because GUI fans think: why do this in term if can do same in GUI.

Example "touch file{001..100}.txt" which will create 100 files in one key press. or "mkdir -pv myphotos_{01..10}/myphoto_{01.­.10}/mypics_{01..10}" which will create 10 directories named myphotos_~, in each dir ten directories of myphoto_~ etc. You can't do this in any standard GUI :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@spamerr well, I've sort of been taking it slow, just progressing through the simpler things, working toward more advanced topics. :)

[770hen]

Good one!

i like that, i am DOSi guy, and that guide is exactly what i was look for.

thanks.

[PinkSombrero]

:) You play UrT.

Also, your channel is awesome. I just subbed. What are your thoughts on Peppermint OS?

[thisweekinlinux]

@PinkSombrero I do indeed. :) one of the guys in my IRC channel actually runs an UrT and TS server for us, if you want to come play sometime.

As far as Peppermint, I'm a fan of LXDE, and from what I gather, it's Ubuntu + LXDE + Mozilla Prism, which makes a decent cloud OS.

[PinkSombrero]

@thisweekinlinux Hurray! I love UrT, i migrated to it this summer after switching from 7 cuz I couldnt play CS.. Im not "new" to linux, but I was new to Peppermint. And I was oblivious to the fact that you had an IRC.... Count me in! :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@PinkSombrero Nice! I saw you came in overnight. Sadly, I was sleeping. :P

[TheJuroth]

thank you for this video!

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheJuroth you're very welcome. :)

[SonicLizzz]

"apt-get moo", right? :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@SonicLizzz :) agreed

[hotcrotch]

you should make videos more like this, your veiwerbase would explode believe me xD

ty for the vid :P

[thisweekinlinux]

@hotcrotch agreed. Not sure why I haven't made a part 4 yet. Time to add that to the lineup. :)

[chaemil72]

it's cool video... i know this things but its so nice to looking to video :D and eating

[thisweekinlinux]

@chaemil72 thanks a lot. :)

[psbabyj]

awsome vid jordan this is what ive bein looking for to really get started in linux

informative and easy to understand

[thisweekinlinux]

@psbabyj thanks a lot. :)

[MetalShreader]

mkdir ~/.pr0n

LOL

[ColombianSoldier1003]

yay a urbanterror user :D

[thisweekinlinux]

@ColombianSoldier1003 :) urbanterror is fun.

[ColombianSoldier1003]

@thisweekinlinux i know :D

[kyreks4]

thank you very very much! :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@kyreks4 you're very welcome. :)

[NoamHendrix]

Good job d00d!

Never give in to the sweet aqua mac os x. The temptation is too strong for me, Sensei. Go on without me...

[thisweekinlinux]

@NoamHendrix Thanks a lot. :)

Aw, so you're going over to OS X? Sad, but it's entirely up to you. Good luck, and if you decide to come back, you'll always have a place in the Linux community!

[DJPopocv]

Awesome video dude!!! this is definitely what i was waiting for to get started on the terminal... Nice and slow... =)

[thisweekinlinux]

@DJPopocv Thanks so much!

[vsonic86]

I can't see it.

[thisweekinlinux]

@vsonic86 Sorry about that, the text was way too small. Part 2 should have taken care of this.

[MrDpsc]

why does everyone use ls and not dir?

[thisweekinlinux]

@MrDpsc since the first time I used Unix, I was told to use ls. it does have a few more features than dir has on Linux (colored text by default). it's just habit for me now.

[tal32123]

Can you please make a video explaining the directories. Every time I have to look for a file I get lost.

[thisweekinlinux]

@tal32123 I did go into it a bit quickly in this video. I was planning a future video to talk about where certain types of files are located, and how to search for files.

[AndresBarrios1990]

is it possible to search for a file from within terminal? if so how?

[thisweekinlinux]

@AndresBarrios1990 sometimes you can use locate, as in "locate filename", but that doesn't usually work. The way that works best is to use:

"sudo find / -iname whateveryouwant"

[gedeo]

No, you like green on black because you watched the matrix haha XD

btw good video

[thisweekinlinux]

@gedeo :P I had to look it up to see when the Matrix actually came out. Looks like it was 6 months or so before I started working with Unix, hehe.

[thisweekinlinux]

@WorldOfANerd really? hm. sorry, I tried to keep the commands kinda simple. There's always pausing the video and resuming after you've tried something, or playing it again! (I like that option)

[Crankster37]

Thanks Jordan. Good video. I learned some new things about the linux terminal but I cant help notice the similarities to MS-DOS ..... for people who used computers waaaaaay back in the early 80's .....

[thisweekinlinux]

@Crankster37 there are definitely some similarities. Glad it was helpful! :)

[vipor29]

what do you use to record in linux like making it so people can see the desktop and video cuz i want to use that

[thisweekinlinux]

@vipor29 gtk-recordmydesktop. I made a video about it a while back. youtube.com/watch?v=QHrFY7vli5­k

[xgeous]

Great tutorial. I wanna learn about the Terminal.

[23Stork]

this is great, may i ask what the music in the background is?

[thisweekinlinux]

@23Stork It's called Deliberate Thought, by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech. com

[SuperKittyPancake]

Hey Jordan, whenever I do the cp and mv commands to a file or a directory.. It just renames the file/directory to what i wanted to to copy/move to.

Confused.

[thisweekinlinux]

@SuperKittyPancake I forgot to mention, if you're copying/moving a directory, you have to use "cp -R dir1 dir2" or "mv -R dir1 dir2" to do it recursively.

[FearedBliss]

Awesome intro. I watched this to refresh my knowledge on the Terminal and to learn anything that I didn't already know. I did already know these things since you already know I like to mess with Arch and Debian, but I found it to be pretty understandable if a beginner watched it. I'm looking forward to future videos. I remember when I started Linux and I was looking to create empty files via terminal.. I was like "create xxx" or something lol. I thought "touch" was only for changing timestamps.

[thisweekinlinux]

@FearedBliss Thanks a lot! I figured it wouldn't be terribly useful to people who are familiar with the terminal, but perhaps later in the series I can come up with some stuff for more advanced people.

[FearedBliss]

@thisweekinlinux Haha yea. I know how to compile Linux Kernels (something I learned recently) but you can make a video on how to compile it so I can see the way you do it, and maybe another video on how to optimize kernels and why. Like changing Kernel Frequency from 250 Mhz or Hz to 1000 Mhz or Hz (Don't remember which unit exactly).

[chmod421]

thanks for this very helpfull review

very understanable i am a mac user sart with unix fan of linux bu bsd's are quite hard for now like linux also,using linux instaled ubuntu on vmware

plz can you do some an other video about compiling

thanks again

[thisweekinlinux]

@chmod421 I'm going to talk about compiling in this series eventually. It's not really an "intro" topic, but I'll cover it later either way.

[davidgagne80]

Thanks! very helpful, looking forward to the next one!

[israelihawk]

great video!! i'm speechless

[vblazenka146]

Good tutorials!Can you say me something about game programming in linux...With C++,Python and maybe Java! Ty.... ;)

[thisweekinlinux]

@vblazenka146 Thanks! I honestly wish I knew about game programming in Linux. I have a tiny bit of knowledge about PyGame, the Python-based game development stuff, but not much at all.

[Laoch111]

Excellent tutorial Jordan. I am glad you decided to teach about the terminal.

[Vindaturk]

Great Idea for a video series man. I wish people spent more time reading about the Terminal. It just makes things so much easier to explain when people have a basic foundation of the terminal. I think after people learn this, they will appreciate the Arch Linux distros a lot more. Well, they will appreciate them all a lot more for that matter. Good job man. Sweet Vid!

[thisweekinlinux]

@Vindaturk Thanks a lot! I know there are a lot of people who shy away from distros like Arch and Gentoo simply because they think it's 100% terminal usage, and they don't want that.

[BeerIndependence4All]

Good job! =0) I'm mainly using Gnome but would like to learn more about the terminal commands. I have some books, but it helps seeing how to do things rather than just reading about them. So how do you change the terminal to green on a black background and how do you toggle between colors?

[thisweekinlinux]

@BeerIndependence4All To change the terminal to green on black, from the Gnome Terminal go to Edit -> Profile Preferences, click the Colors tab, uncheck "Use colors from system theme", and from the dropdown beside "Built-in schemes" select Green on Black.

[SonicLizzz]

@thisweekinlinux I was wondering if NO ONE had asked HOW you changed the colors, but luckily, someone had :)

Now I got them cool colors on as well B)

[thisweekinlinux]

@SonicLizzz nice. 

[TheShowThatSUX]

I have always used dir instead of ls while the ls ls color coded by type when you use ls I have never seen a real difference, is there one?

[thisweekinlinux]

@TheShowThatSUX from what I've read, there's very little difference at this point. ls provides colors where dir doesn't.

[bamdadkhan]

gods, urban terror is a mac app? (*.app/Contents/Resources etc)

[thisweekinlinux]

@bamdadkhan it's multi-platform. the download for Linux is actually both, Linux / Mac in one package. :)

[bamdadkhan]

@thisweekinlinux that's handy. :) btw, i loved the video, brings me back when i used to learn these things by myself on an old sgi irix box. :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@bamdadkhan thanks. :) I spend so much time in the terminal, I'm surprised I didn't start making these videos sooner...

[constancenoring]

Well done, I found this to be quite informative and I'll look forward to the next part on Monday!

[runwithsicssorsdev]

very helpfull!

switched to linux fully about

a month ago and this helps me

"get in the grove"

thanks

[TheHornyDevill]

This is so great! Thanks!!!!:D

[clodoveo13]

Funny, I have many years using the terminal and I didn't know that typing just "cd" takes you to home :) thanks!

[xXkazumaruXx]

I just learned the windows terminal... now I switched to Ubuntu... have to learn it all again...

[thisweekinlinux]

@xXkazumaruXx sorry. :/ but if you're comfortable/familiar with the Windows terminal, the Linux terminal shouldn't be a problem. just a matter of figuring out some of the ways to do things.

[jgilb100]

is there a universal parameter in Unix like the /? in dos which explains the parameters of a command?, such a command will be VERY USEFUL to newbies :)

[thisweekinlinux]

@jgilb100 sadly, there's nothing universal. /? does work occasionally, sometimes it's --help, or -?. The best option, of course, is the "man" command, so you can just type in "man ls" to get the full manual for the ls command.

[MrWookie007]

Thanks I learned a lot..But it seems very unnecessary. I only use the terminal when I want to launch my C++ apps.

[thisweekinlinux]

@MrWookie007 not unnecessary at all. some people spend huge amounts of time in the terminal, because the GUI is actually one of the slowest ways to do things (for most things). Think about it, using a hand to move a mouse, to move an arrow on a screen, searching through menus, then clicking wherever. With the terminal, you open it, type in a string of characters and things happen (generally).

[MrWookie007]

@thisweekinlinux Maybe you are right.

[thisweekinlinux]

@MrWookie007 well, to each his own, as always. I'm not here to say that everyone has to use the terminal to be a "true" linux user or anything, I just want to make sure people know that it's an option, and it's nothing to be afraid of. :)

[1Fo]

I didn't saw all the comments, so sorry if I'm saying something that's already been said but I think a good example for "Go up one directory" is if you are a (e.g. web developer) and your web site is in web, your css files are in web/stylesheets/ and your image files are in web/images/ and you want to use an image that is inside that directory for a div background for example you should use something like: "../images/bckg.jpg" so you can go back one dir and enter another in the main dir.

[thisweekinlinux]

@1Fo you're very right, but for a beginner's video I thought going into relative paths like that might be a bit confusing. I'll definitely address that at some point. thanks! :)

[jake007g]

This video was very basic, but should be extremely helpful for terminal n00bs :) I'm looking forwards to the later episodes in this series when you move on to more complicated things :-)

Great video keep it up!

[thisweekinlinux]

@jake007g that's exactly what I was going for. Start off with something relatively simple, just gaining comfort with the terminal, then eventually move on to more complicated stuff.

[scouser73ubuntu]

Hi Jordan, thank you for starting the Intro to the Terminal. I didn't realise that by typing cd that I could get back to /home, as I always closed down and restarted the terminal. I'm looking forward to the nest in the series as I really enjoy using the terminal. Great video as always.

[thisweekinlinux]

@scouser73ubuntu very cool, glad you got something out of this. :)

[roguemale57]

A good video but, you mention you working with ubuntu.Another point is with the viewing ability of the terminal perhaps abit more of it in the next video.I look forward to your next video.

[thisweekinlinux]

@roguemale57 I don't know if I missed something there or not. Yes, I'm working with Ubuntu for now. I'm trying to find the time that I can have my desktop down long enough to put something else on it.

I'll fix the terminal text size in the next video. :)

[ewmcnee]

I like your videos and the fact that you are taking it to an instructional level for new users. Just wanted to point out that "Gnome" is pronounced with a hard "g" sound, and not like "nome". Also, the text in the terminal window is very small and essentially unreadable. Otherwise, great stuff - keep up the good work!

[thisweekinlinux]

@ewmcnee you're very right. I used to say Gnome with the hard G sound, like GNU, then I got lazy. :P

I will definitely make the text larger and easier to read for the next time. Thanks

[thisweekinlinux]

@mh3rn4nd3z3 it's a series, I was just starting with what I traditionally consider easy, and I'll work up to more difficult stuff. I definitely understand the need to explain it. I believe I did mention at some point that the goal was to introduce people to the terminal who normally wouldn't use it and help allay some fears people might have.

I figure if you take it slow, introduce things and explain exactly how they work, even beginners can do it.

[thisweekinlinux]

@mh3rn4nd3z3 a very good point... hm.

[lopbox]

it was a really helpful and clear video for a newcomer, excellent job, hope more people will get comfortable with the console by those efforts :)

[lbaquerizo]

you should do a video on how to install tar.gz files

[thisweekinlinux]

@lbaquerizo absolutely. that's on the way. :)

[lbaquerizo]

once again you made an Oscar video

[OniLink10]

I did not know that you could just do cd to go back to home. I always thought you had to cd ~.

[JCtHeOnly1]

i have been longing for this, THANKS!

[ward1986]

GREAT GREAT IDEA....wanted to learn CLI.

[jstrjstr]

Think you should make the terminal font bigger, or zoom in. Sort of hard to see what's going on :O

[jmk1975]

This was very helpful.  Thank you.

[SubaruSumeragiX1999]

thanks, this is definitely an area I'm seriously lacking in proficiency. I'm eagerly awaiting your next vid on this subject!

[JordanMaster22]

I do 'cd ../'

:3

[Tebibyte240]

Great intro, I think that's going to be a great way to show to the new ones the advantages of using the linux terminal

[kad3t]

Nothing that I wouldn't have known but I think this video was an AWESOME idea for all those that are just starting up with Linux. As long as you keep up with the lessons eventually moving into compiling stuff of sources this will definitely end up as one of the most viewed tutorials on YT. Great Job!

[h1ll37]

Thanks a bunch. Please keep making these. I've been using Linux for a couple years now and know some basic terminal but I've really avoided getting a lot done... thanks.

[elnegrobembon]

thanks for this. i'm sort of a linux noob, but i don't feel all that threatened by cli. i actually enjoy using the terminal once in a while, but i still have a lot to learn. even though the vid was for really basic stuff, i learned a couple things.

good job. i hope this helps people new to linux.

btw, hopefully in the future you can make some scripting tutorials?

[thisweekinlinux]

@elnegrobembon glad it was helpful, even a little. :)

My scripting knowledge is pretty limited, but I'll do some reading on it and see what I can do. My friend H4x0r18 has done a few videos on bash scripting if you'd like to see those.

[elnegrobembon]

@thisweekinlinux

thanks for the suggestion. i just subbed to your friend's channel too..

[KuzenkoIvan]

what program are you using when you working with web cam?

[thisweekinlinux]

@KuzenkoIvan guvcview. I had to add a PPA to get the latest version, but it works pretty well.

[KuzenkoIvan]

@thisweekinlinux ok,thanks

[jasonodoom]

I agree with you, the Terminal isn't all that scary...

[commodore256]

@jasonodoom It is when you do sudo stuff and you don't see any asterisks echoing your password and you think it's not detecting your keyboard strokes.

It took me a year to get used to the CLI.

[invnd1245]

Hey Jordan! Why do you say ''I wanna to create''? Isn't it incorrect?

And by the way - bash tutorial is an awesome idea!!! Keep it up please! :D

A lot of people like to make tutorials of GUI. How to do different things in Gnome or KDE... So it feels like a lack of really what GNU is inside. So please make some tutorials about GNU but not about its GUI. Thanks!

[thisweekinlinux]

@invnd1245 I just watched it back, I said "If I wanted to create" (I think that's the time you were referring to).

I'll definitely keep going on with the CLI tutorials, thanks so much! :)

[r8derfan74]

Great how-to, looking forward to the future ones! Hope to see more CLI vids :)

[russjr08]

You know, I think this is going to be a great series, and I look forward to seeing more! One thing I should mention, is that when you try to move into a directory that has a space, you would need to do the cd command with quotes around the directory name or you would need to use an escape character. One thing that I actually just found out is that the dollar sign after the path means you are a regular user, and if you was using the root account it would be a # symbol. I love using the Terminal!

[thisweekinlinux]

@russjr08 You're exactly right. I'll put that into my "addendum" I'm working on. :) thanks!

[russjr08]

@thisweekinlinux No Problem!! :)

[0frecel0]

Have you ever tried Yakuake? Most useful program for people who like to use terminal a lot

[thisweekinlinux]

@0frecel0 I have indeed. Very handy app, just like Guake

[0frecel0]

@thisweekinlinux Funny. I never knew that there is a Gnome equvalent of Yakuake, I should have checked.

[suli8]

more intro's... more useful and handy stuff.. less distro reviews..

i think it's better this way!

only my opinion!

keep the good work! :)

[JeffTheComputerGeek]

@thisweekinlinux you need to do a distro review on Mandriva 2010.1 Spring GNOME Edition badly dude. Why did you skip it?

[thisweekinlinux]

@JeffTheComputerGeek you're absolutely right. I also haven't done one on Fedora 13 yet. Things keep coming up, sorry.

[JeffTheComputerGeek]

I love Linux but, I don't know much about terminal but, I am comfortable with it. In Mandriva, I know how to do: su urpmi and su urpme. In Ubuntu I know how to do more.

[thisweekinlinux]

@JeffTheComputerGeek hopefully I'll come up with some things you may not have seen before.

[nolanhester1]

great video bro :)

[sinapsis50]

i might have missed it but i didn't hear you mention that when navigating, your input are Case sensitive, remember that trouble i had getting into my music folder lmao

[thisweekinlinux]

@sinapsis50 you're absolutely right. I completely forgot to mention case-sensitivity. i'm going to make an addendum to this part and put it on my second channel, hopefully tonight, that covers some of the things I missed.

[Pabl0rd]

Very nice Channel! =D

What program you use to record the screen? RecordMyDesktop?