Related Nanodegree Program
Full Stack Web Developer
Earn a Nanodegree program certificate to accelerate your career.
Learn moreGetting Started in the Shell
Earn a Nanodegree program certificate to accelerate your career.
Learn moreApprox. 1 Day
Beginner
A quick, one-lesson introduction to the Unix-style command-line environment.
This course is intended to get you up to speed on the shell — using a terminal, managing files and directories, and running command-line programs.
This is a course for beginners to the shell environment.
To take this course, you'll need a current Mac, Windows, or Linux computer.
You should be familiar with elementary programming concepts such as "statement", "variable", "argument to a function", and "file". No particular programming language is required, though.
See the Technology Requirements for using Udacity.
Although the Unix shell has an "old school" feel, it remains an important skill, due to the incredible popularity of Unix-like systems: The majority of web servers in the world today run on Linux, and the same bash
command line is shipped with every Mac computer.
Using the shell is a prerequisite for many other developer skills including version control (such as git
) and deployment.
Instructor