This is a command line tutorial primarily conducted in in the OS X command line. Because of OSX’s unix heritage, much of the info here is also useful in other unix inspired systems, like the Linux command line.
The command line can be a scary place when you first encounter it. When you read some instructions that tell you to open up a terminal window and type some cryptic words and phrases, it can seem like you’ve been sucked into the matrix, expected to decrypt an endless stream of indecipherable characters.
Fear not, it’s really not that difficult to use. In fact, when you see an experienced user looking at a terminal that is scrolling line after line of text faster than you can even read it, they aren’t really reading it either. For the most part they may be scanning for some key words, but mostly they are just waiting for it to stop.
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Contents
How to use Terminal to open the command line
Before you can use it, you need to be able to find it.
So what we need to do is open the terminal. On OS X, open your Applications folder, then open the Utilities folder. Open the Terminal application. You may want to add this to your dock. I like to launch terminal by using Spotlight search in OS X, searching for “terminal”.
