Terminal basics: files, folders, and commands

This course is for anyone who has used a computer only through windows, menus, and buttons. No programming background is needed. By the end, you'll open your terminal, move between folders, look at files, copy and move them, run a small program, and recover confidently when a command goes wrong — all without touching a mouse.

By the end you'll be able to (course objectives):

Open the terminal app on your computer and read the prompt.
Navigate folders with pwd, ls, and cd using both absolute and relative paths.
Inspect files and folders with cat, less, file, and ls -l.
Create, move, copy, and delete files and folders with mkdir, mv, cp, and rm.
Run a command with arguments and flags, and find help with --help or man.
Interrupt a stuck command and recover from a wrong command without fear.

Prerequisites: None beyond everyday computer use. You should know how to open apps, save files, and click folders. If you have never opened a terminal, Lesson 1 starts there.

Practice environment: Your own terminal. This course has no embedded sandbox.

Lessons

#	Topic	You'll learn
01	Open the terminal and read the prompt	Terminal, shell, prompt, command
02	Find where you are and move around	`pwd`, `ls`, `cd`, working directory
03	Use paths to reach any folder	Absolute path, relative path, `~`, `..`
04	Look inside files and folders	`cat`, `less`, `file`, `ls -l`
05	Move, copy, create, and delete	`mv`, `cp`, `mkdir`, `rm`
06	Run programs safely and recover from mistakes	Arguments/flags, `--help`/`man`, `Ctrl+C`, error messages

Sources listed in sources.md.