Linux Debian Terminal Tutorial for Beginners

Terminal Debian Getting Started Guide The Tutorial Presents you a Step-by-Step Debian Terminal Tutorial for Beginners. And with this Debian Command Line Tutorial for Beginners you Can Get Easily Initiated to Make the First, Steps on the Linux Shell :) Especially relevant how this is Just a 'Quick and Dirty' Introduction to the Command Line by Example on the Console/Terminal Bash Shell emulator. Now I strongly Recommend you to "Take it Easy" but to continue Experimenting with constancy, because as always is only the "Practice Makes the Master"! ;) Most noteworthy: it's fundamental you "Get your Hands Dirty" following along this guide and Execute the Commands as they are harmless for your System. Moreover, the Commands are Intended for Execution the Default Bash Linux Shell but Most should Works also for the Bourne, C, TC and Korn Shells... Finally, on bottom included instruction on How to Get Started Install New Packages for Debian. 1. Launching Terminal How to Open Terminal on Linux Debian Desktops See How Open Terminal Debian Open Terminal Linux Debian Most noteworthy: the Main Bash Shell Commands are simple Abbreviations of the Corresponding Word. 2. Listing Now try to List the Directory's Contents To List the Directory you are in execute: ls . The "." is optional and meaning the Location you are in. The default Location each time you open a New Terminal Window is the Home Folder.So the Output of the Command should be very similar to this: Desktop/ Downloads/ Pictures/ tmp/ Documents/ Music/ Templates/ Videos/ Here the Entities with a Trailing Slash are Directories. Again to List the Downloads Folder inside on your Home, run: ls ~/Downloads Or also: ls $HOME/Downloads Where "$HOME" is an Environment Variable always containing your User's Home Path. Next to List the Main System's Root Directory: (The Root of What? Of the System's Directory Tree. The Trunk, all the other Directories are Branches.) ls / So possibly to List the "usr" Directory: : ls /usr Finally, to List the "bin" Branch: ls /usr/bin 3. Changing Folder Next practice the Change Directory directive Change to the Root Directory: cd / Then Go to /usr/bin: cd /usr/bin Now to Navigate Back to the Parent use the ".." option. So non to Return to the Root of the Directory Tree you may play: cd ../.. (It's like to say: 'One Step Back and then One Step Back' again) Finally, to Return Home is simple as: cd Then to Verify you are in that Location Use: pwd Hey Congratulations! you achieved the First, Step-by-step Walk into the Linux Directory Tree! :) The System's Directory Tree Root: / The root User's Directory: /root The root User: the SuperAdmin that can Execute Any Command 4. Making Folders Again experiment yours Creative powers Making a test Directory like: mkdir $HOME/livingroom . How you should have already understood, $HOME and '~' are both synonymous of your's Home Folder. And the Home Directory is where your User Contents are Stored by Default. Moreover, to enhance your Memorization and Fun I rightly Use some Metaphoric term. So here you can Immagine a directory like a Room into your Home :) Try Making Multiple Directories at once with: mkdir $HOME/bedroom $HOME/bathroom $HOME/gardenTry to use the "ls" Command to Check your creative Work:) ls ~ Finally, use the 'touch' Command to Make a New Empty File: touch $HOME/livingroom/box And how you could already have perceived, in my creative Examples I make use of the following Mnemonic Linking: Directory -> Bounded Spatial Entity. File -> Thing. And so in the Previous Command to an "Empty File" corresponds a natively "Empty Thing" like a "box", or otherwise you may take it as a simple Label/Name ;) 5. Copying Stuff Experiment How to Copy Directories and Files. To Copy a Single File: * As in the other cases here 'cp' is the Abbreviation for 'Copy' * cp $HOME/livingroom/box $HOME/bedroom/ You see how in this Example we copied our 'box' from the 'livingroom' to the 'bedroom.' :) Now verify the correctness of the operation Listing your's bedroom contents: ls $HOME/bedroom/ And the Output will exactly display as: box Now for Instance to Copy a Single Directory inside to another do: cp -r $HOME/livingroom $HOME/garden List the 'garden' contents: ls $HOME/garden And you'll Find: livingroom Now you have also a 'livingroom' copy into your 'garden' O: Moreover, to Copy-Duplicate-Rename a Directory: First, to be sure you are again into the $HOME area: cd And then Make a newly duplicated room do: cp -r ./livingroom ./room Finally, to Copy-Displace-Rename at the same time: cp -r $HOME/livingroom $HOME/bedroom/wardrobe By the way with this "magically crazy" Command we have trasformed our 'livingroom' into a 'wardrobe' inside to the 'bedroom' :)) 6. Moving Stuff Next Experiments the Dynamics of Files and Directories And in this Moving dimension Files or Directories are taken as the Same. So now for instance Make and Empty 'bottle': touch ~/livingroom/bottle And then we Displace it in another Room: mv ~/livingroom/bottle ~/bedroom/ Then verify Listing the 'bedroom' contents: ls ~/bedroom/ And what you Find? The: bottle Also if only an empty one, sorry :)) Again you can Move & Rename at the same time like: mv ~/bedroom/bottle ~/bathroom/can Again we have "magically changed" an empty "bottle" inside the "bedroom" in an empty "can" inside to the "bathroom". :)) And as I said in the introduction the Command for Directories works the Same! So now again like "Alice in the Wonderland" we Reshape the Folder "livingroom" in the "garden" into a "teapot" in the bedroom! :}} mv ~/garden/livingroom ~/bedroom/teapot Patiently Verify it with: ls ~/bedroom/teapot Finding What? Simple :) Emptiness! :} 7. Annihilating Finally, we try investigating our Magical Destroying Powers Deleting Directories and Files! Especially Releant: in a Working Environment you should Triple Check the Commands Before Execution... Because in the Shell Environment there's No Trash Bin and so the stuff is directly Annihilated!!! How Removing Files.First, we Wipe Out the 'box' in the 'livingroom' with: rm $HOME/livingroom/box Check it with: ls $HOME/livingroom/ Now we try the same for Multiple Entities... First, we Make a Copy of the 'can' into then 'bathroom' in a 'jar' into the 'bedroom', Magically as before... :)) with: cp $HOME/bathroom/can $HOME/bedroom/jar And now how to brutally Get Rid of Both? Simply like that: rm $HOME/bathroom/can $HOME/bedroom/jar How Removing Directories.Now we Start to furiously Destroying our nice Home... [[[: First, we Raze the 'livingroom': rm -rf $HOME/livingroom"-rf" is a combination of Flags. "r" for Recursively and "f" for Forced And finally, finally, we simply Desert All-in-one the Remaining Habitats: rm -rf ~/bathroom ~/bedroom ~/garden Sorry, we have Turned our Home into Empty Space, but What a JOKE! {{{: 8. Getting Admin Power Last How to Get the Admin Super-Powers. To Login as SuperUser: su - Or: sudo su If Got "User is Not in Sudoers file" then see: How to Enable sudo Then to Logout: exit To Protect your System from the potential Damage of an Hazardous Crazy Command Execution the Logout should be executed every Time your Setup is Achieved! Finally, to Execute a Single Command as SuperUser: su -c 'myCommand' Or: sudo myCommandSo for instance to List the Protected root Directory try to run:sudo ls /root 9. Installing Software See Further Howto Getting Started Installing Debian Packages Debian Package Install Getting Started Install Debian Package Quick Start Congratulations, you are now fully Initiated to the awesome Debian Command Line Shell. ;)