New Course: Command Line Basics

The command line is a powerful tool that developers, or anyone, can use in their day to day work. If you’re not familiar with the command line, or want to gain confidence in your skills, then our new course, Command Line Basics, is for you!

In this 21-video course, you’ll get started with the command line and then take your knowledge to the next level right away! You’ll learn how to search and sort through directories and files, as well as how to take your knowledge and turn it into scripts you can use to automate away tedious tasks.

Take a look at what’s inside:

Part 1: Beginning Command Line

Introduction: Learn what exactly the command line is and why it can be such a powerful tool for your arsenal.

Man Pages: Man is your wellspring of knowledge when it comes to learning about new commands. Make sure to get well-acquianted with it before moving on to more complex challenges.

Navigation: In order to function on the command line, you’ll need to be able to see where you are and know how to move around inside the system. It’s just like riding a glowing bike that creates walls that…ok it’s not like Tron at all.

Creation and Destruction: Once youre comfortable moving around, it’s time to learn how to create files and folders and how to get rid of ones you don’t need anymore.

Creation and Destruction: Hierarchy Challenge: Test your new skills and learn how to create one new type of file.

Find: This time around, you’ll be learning how to search through a deep hierarchy of folders to find any file or type of file you’re looking for without opening Finder and doing it manually.

Searching Inside Files: Next, you’ll learn how to search and parse through the oceans of text you find in the files you come across.

Challenge: Sorting: Finally, you’ll learn how to take the results you’ve found and sort them until they’re in a shape that is most pleasing to you.

Conclusion: In the conclusion, we’ll do a quick recap of what we’ve learned so far and what we have to look forward to in the next half of the course.

1. Introduction: Learn what exactly the command line is and why it can be such a powerful tool for your arsenal.

2. Man Pages: Man is your wellspring of knowledge when it comes to learning about new commands. Make sure to get well-acquianted with it before moving on to more complex challenges.

3. Navigation: In order to function on the command line, you’ll need to be able to see where you are and know how to move around inside the system. It’s just like riding a glowing bike that creates walls that…ok it’s not like Tron at all.

4. Creation and Destruction: Once youre comfortable moving around, it’s time to learn how to create files and folders and how to get rid of ones you don’t need anymore.

5. Creation and Destruction: Hierarchy Challenge: Test your new skills and learn how to create one new type of file.

6. Find: This time around, you’ll be learning how to search through a deep hierarchy of folders to find any file or type of file you’re looking for without opening Finder and doing it manually.

7. Searching Inside Files: Next, you’ll learn how to search and parse through the oceans of text you find in the files you come across.

8. Challenge: Sorting: Finally, you’ll learn how to take the results you’ve found and sort them until they’re in a shape that is most pleasing to you.

9. Conclusion: In the conclusion, we’ll do a quick recap of what we’ve learned so far and what we have to look forward to in the next half of the course.

Part 2: Intermediate Command Line

Introduction: In this introduction, get a quick overview of what’s to come in the second half of our course.

Customizing Bash: Get a feel for what it’s like to edit config files in Bash and how you can bend the system to your will.

Diff: Sometimes you need to look at what has changed between two versions of a file. If that’s the case, diff has got you covered!

Challenge: Undoing a Bad Patch: And sometimes you realize you really don’t want the changes that have been made to a given file. Not to worry, the patch command has you covered there too!

File System: After working with the filesystem for so long, it’s good to take a step back and think about what’s really going on. In this video you’ll get an idea of what a file really is.

File Permissions: Now that you’ve seen how files work, it’s time to think about what file permissions are and how you can change them to suit your needs.

Bash Scripting: Tests and Ifs: In this introduction to Bash scripts, you’ll learn how to define variables as well as how to use "tests" and if-statements.

Bash Scripting: Loops and Switches: Next, you’ll learn how to add looping constructs and switch-statements to your bag of tricks.

Bash Scripting: Functions: Finally, we’ll end our tour of Bash by looking at how functions work.

Automating Your Job: Now that you’ve learned the basics, it’s time to test your skills by putting together a script that will make the lives of the designers on your team a little easier.

Challenge: Automating Your Job – Refactoring: In this challenge, you’ll refactor your script a little bit by pulling some functionality out into a re-usable function.

Conclusion: In the conclusion, we’ll recap what we’ve learned in this course, and find out where to go to learn more.

1. Introduction: In this introduction, get a quick overview of what’s to come in the second half of our course.

2. Customizing Bash: Get a feel for what it’s like to edit config files in Bash and how you can bend the system to your will.

3. Diff: Sometimes you need to look at what has changed between two versions of a file. If that’s the case, diff has got you covered!

4. Challenge: Undoing a Bad Patch: And sometimes you realize you really don’t want the changes that have been made to a given file. Not to worry, the patch command has you covered there too!

5. File System: After working with the filesystem for so long, it’s good to take a step back and think about what’s really going on. In this video you’ll get an idea of what a file really is.

6. File Permissions: Now that you’ve seen how files work, it’s time to think about what file permissions are and how you can change them to suit your needs.

7. Bash Scripting: Tests and Ifs: In this introduction to Bash scripts, you’ll learn how to define variables as well as how to use "tests" and if-statements.

8. Bash Scripting: Loops and Switches: Next, you’ll learn how to add looping constructs and switch-statements to your bag of tricks.

9. Bash Scripting: Functions: Finally, we’ll end our tour of Bash by looking at how functions work.

10. Automating Your Job: Now that you’ve learned the basics, it’s time to test your skills by putting together a script that will make the lives of the designers on your team a little easier.

11. Challenge: Automating Your Job – Refactoring: In this challenge, you’ll refactor your script a little bit by pulling some functionality out into a re-usable function.

12. Conclusion: In the conclusion, we’ll recap what we’ve learned in this course, and find out where to go to learn more.