Using the command line on a Mac

the command line on a Mac can be found by running the Terminal App in /Applications/Utilities. Terminal allows us to run special commands on the computer that cannot be found in the graphical user interface. These commands are usually short words that may be followed by one or more parameters...bits of other information that the command needs to run. Commands in the Terminal always run in the current directory. One of the most important tasks you can learn with the command line is changing working directories.

To change directories on a mac we first need to know where we currently are. Type:

pwd

in the Terminal app. You will probably see something like this: /Users/username. If you didn't see something similar to that then type:

cd ~

'cd' is the command (change directory), '~' (tilde) is a parameter that means 'location of my home directory'. That command then will take you to your home directory. If I wanted to see what folders and files were in my current directory I could type:

ls

Try that now.

Lets assume that the directory I need to get to is at Documents/school-stuff/project1. when you did the list command earlier you probably saw that the Documents folder is inside the directory we are currently in. In fact the full path to the directory I want is /Users/username/Documents/school-stuff/project1

To change directories in the Terminal we use the 'cd' (change directory) command. If I want to enter the Documents directory (and I see it when I type 'ls') I simply type:

cd Documents

If I want to go back to where I was I can type:

cd ..

('..' is a shortcut for parent directory)

I can also change multiple directories at once. like so:

cd Documents/school-stuff/project1

One trick that can help you as you are navigating with the Terminal is the 'tab' key. 'tab' autocompletes what you are typing if it can. So if I started typing

cd Doc

then hit 'tab' it would autocomplete to:

cd Documents

Then I could keep typing:

cd Documents/scho

hit 'tab' again and it should autocomplete to:

cd Documents/school-stuff

If you hit 'tab' and nothing happens then it means the computer either can't find a match or there is more than one match. The command line is also case sensitive...meaning 'doc' is different than 'Doc'. Remember that 'ls' is your friend. It will always show you the contents of whatever directory you are in.

One last tip. Apple has actually put a bit of work on making the Terminal aware of what is going on in the Finder. Another way you can get to a specific folder in Terminal would be to type

cd 

then drag the folder you want from the Finder window onto the Terminal window. In the case of this example if you have done correctly it should show something like this:

cd /Users/username/Documents/school-stuff/project1

The advantage of this is that it doesn't matter what directory you started in...it will always take you to the directory specified.

Here are a couple of additional resources to look over if you feel you need more help.

• Treehouse: Intro to Mac command line
• Youtube: How to use Terminal on your Mac