The shell is an non-graphical interface for a computer that requires only a keyboard.

It is often interchangeably called the "terminal", "command-line", or "console."

These terms are all actually different! (But the closest is "command-line").

For our purposes, the "shell" refers to a UNIX-like command-line interface.

Bash and ZSH are going to be our shells of choice, as they are the most common.

Some exceptions are Windows (Command Prompt) and some linux distributions.

If your Linux distro does not use Bash/ZSH, refer to the documentation of its shell.

Note that Mac users have ZSH as the default shell, however, Bash is still available.

Hi Window users! You're the only ones that need to do extra work. While Command Prompt and PowerShell are useful, you'll be better off getting comfortable with a proper shell. There are 3 options:

1. Windows Subsystem for Linux
2. Cygwin
3. Git Bash

Here's a basic list of commands you should get to know:

• man - view manual pages for commands
• history - shows previous commands
• clear - clear screen
• pwd - show present working directory
• ls - list files and directories
• cat - view contents of a file
• cp - copy file
• rm - remove file
• mv - move files and directories (can also rename)
• cd - change directory
• mkdir - make new directory
• rmdir - remove directory