as the title states, i want to become familiar/proficient in using the terminal on my mac, and just in general the code used in terminal/CLI. any tips on where to get started, like some online free course to follow? tips/help appreciated
Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
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Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#2I originally learned much from the bash programming guide and advanced bash programming guide. While Mac uses zsh, you can still learn quite a bit that will carry over, and you can always run bash scripts with the `#!/bin/bash`
The Linux Documentation Project (TLDP) is a great resource generally
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#3Learn basic commands, use Youtube.
`man` will tell you the usage of most commands `man cp` for example will give you an explanation on the command `cp`.
Learn to use `grep` and `find`. And you'll also want to learn bash (the programming language).
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#4a great place to start would be to take a few smaller tasks that you do everyday and use terminal to do those
i'll also suggest trying to automate smaller tasks by leveraging scripts and terminal
best way to learn is to do
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#5Apple's own documentation seems decent: https://support.apple.com/guide/terminal/toc
and their "Shell Scripting Primer" looks fairly comprehensive: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Op...
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#6The missing semester of your cs education
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#7The best way to learn the terminal is to use it. Whatever is that you do in your working day, do it from inside the terminal.
Any problem you come up with, solve it by seaching or asking GPT.
Of course, this presupposes that you do have the basic understanding of how file system is structured, have basic knowledge of shell commands (cd, ls, cp, gzip, etc...). If not, those are not difficult (at a begginer level) and just google "how to use command line" as there are countless resources out there. This is just one them: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Tools_and_tes...
But I would actually suggest one particular course, that is actually not targeted at begginers (in my opinion). That course is Destroy All Software (https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog) and it will teach you to really appreciate the beauty of the shell/terminal (yes, those are different but it really doesn't matter at this point). The course is not only about the terminal, but you will find gold nuggets in that series of screencast that are about the terminal and the philosophy of using it. There are few free episodes and one that I can specifically point to regarding learning the concepts is "Tar, Fork, and the Tar Pipe" (https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/screencasts/catalog/tar-f...).
If you want to be proficient in the shell wizardry, it will take time. But it's worth it.
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#8This is a nice little course that seems to get bigger every time I reference it: https://effective-shell.com/
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#9There’s a pretty basic course on code academy for how to use the terminal with basic commands etc.It’s super easy.
And then from there if you need to do something, but don’t know how/don’t know the command - Google it.
Re: Ask HN: I want to learn to use the terminal, where do I start
#10A useful first step is to stop using Finder. Instead perform the required operations from the terminal. When you don't yet know how, Google it. The first couple of useful commands are ls: list files (lots of options); cd: change directory; cp:copy; mv:move -- aka rename; vi:edit text file; file: what type of file is it? ... etc.
If that's too daunting, then still have Finder open, but try to match the operations with above and more.