CH.03 · 10 MIN · PART 1

The terminal is just a text chat with your computer.

You type a short instruction, press Enter, and the computer answers. That is all. In this chapter you learn to open one in the right folder and to walk around with three commands.

open in a folderpwd · ls · cdread a prompt

Open a terminal in the right folder

pick your computer

A terminal always sits inside one folder. Git works on the folder you are in, so opening it in the right place is the first real skill. The screens below are illustrations rebuilt in the browser, not real screenshots.

Right-click inside the folder

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Open the folder in File Explorer

Go to the folder where your project will live (or make a new one).

2

Right-click empty space

Click on blank space inside the folder, not on a file. On Windows 11 choose Open in Terminal. (Windows 10 has no such entry: use the shortcut below.)

3

Check the prompt

Windows Terminal opens already inside that folder. The path in the prompt should end with the folder name.

Shortcut: Faster, on any Windows: click the address bar in Explorer, type powershell, press Enter.

Windows heads-up: Until Git is installed (Chapter 4), use Windows Terminal or PowerShell. pwd, ls and cd work there. For hidden items PowerShell wants ls -Force where the practice below uses ls -a. In Chapter 4 you switch to Git Bash, which behaves like macOS and Linux, and every chapter after that uses it.

Read a prompt

tap the pieces
Tap a piece to see what it means.

Practice: walk around

hands-on

Three commands do most of the work: pwd (where am I?), ls (what is here?), cd (go there). Find the hidden folder called treasure. This practice terminal is bash-style: it behaves like Git Bash, macOS Terminal and Linux.

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practice terminal · bash-style

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Git, Visually · Parts 1 and 2 · English