command line - What is a terminal and how do I open and use it?

• What is a terminal?



• How do I open a terminal window?


• How do I use the terminal?

What is it:

The terminal is an interface in which you can type and execute text based commands.

---

Why use it:

It can be much faster to complete some tasks using a Terminal than with graphical applications and menus. Another benefit is allowing access to many more commands and scripts.

A common terminal task of installing an application can be achieved within a single command, compared to navigating through the Software Centre or Synaptic Manager.

For example the following would install Deluge bittorrent client:

sudo apt-get install deluge

To save a detailed list of files in the current directory tree to a file called listing.txt:

find -type f > listing.txt

Sometimes you will also see the following notation:

$ whoami
calum
$ ls
Downloads  Documents

This means that the command whoami is executed which gives calum as output. Following that command, ls is executed which outputs Downloads Documents.

A similar notation is:

# apt-get update

This means that the command should be run as root, that is, using sudo:

$ sudo apt-get update

Note that the # character is also used for comments.

# this command will give your username
whoami
# the next command will show the contents of the current directory
ls

---

How do I open a terminal:

• Open the Dash (Super Key) or
  Applications and type terminal

  
  
  

  




• Use the keyboard shortcut by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.




• For older or Ubuntu versions: (More Info)

  
  
  

  Applications → Accessories → Terminal

---

Alternative names for the terminal:

• Console


• Shell


• Command line


• Command prompt

(Although technically they mean different things)

---

Common commands & Further information