Hacking Tools: The Terminal

What's a Terminal?

A way to run programs without needing a mouse or desktop

No, not a touchscreen

(Almost) Synonyms

Ask me after if you want to know the difference

• terminal
• shell
• bash
• command prompt

Terminals are on Windows, too!

What can you do with a terminal?

• Find files with a certain name
• Find a specific word in thousands of files
• Debug your network connection
• Compile code without an IDE
• Use git to collaborate with other programmers
• Run programs on a computer without a monitor
• Run multiple programs at the same time

Psst - for the upperclassman

If you already know the first half of the talk, try some challenges at overthewire.org

But first, the basics

Directories, a.k.a. folders

Directory Commands

• pwd - print working directory
• cd - change directory
• ls - list directory
• mkdir - make directory
• rmdir - remove directory

Files

File Commands

• file - what type of file is this?
• cat - concatenate one or more files together
• cp - copy a file
• rm - remove file
• mv - move (or rename) a file
• vim - edit a file (see also emacs)

File permissions

• Read
• Write
• Execute

Executing programs

• Not executable by default
• You can make it executable with
  chmod +x <filename>
• Runs with the shell you're using