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Written by:

justin

Score: 545 votes: 556 Format: Article

 The 5-Minute Essential Shell Tutorial

Alright, far too often (especially in the IRC channels) there is a time where even the most beginner of users are faced with the terminal.  It has many names: terminal, shell, console, "command prompt" even as a carryover from those familiar with Windows.  Many people are frightened by it for some reason or another, so this tutorial will attempt to provide you the most basic of commands to enable navigation and basic system actions from the comfort of your keyboard.

Let's get started shall we?  Since everyone's Mint version can be different, I'm not going to detail how to actually open the terminal.  I'll assume you can find it in the menu or by right-clicking in the desktop.

Facts:

1. You can do almost anything in a terminal which you would also do from a GUI interface.
    
2. Most commands were designed first to work in the terminal, then a GUI put on top of them.  That's why some GUI's may feel clunky - they were an afterthought at times.
    
3. The default location for your terminal to open from the menu is in your home folder, also known as ~
    
4. Your current directory can be noted by the . operator.  Most commands when they act on the current folder selection, operate on .
    
5. Commands, locations, and files are case sensitive.  /home is not the same as /HOME or /Home.
    
6. Use the tab key to complete file names.  If you have a long driver titled, for example,
   driver-128947232jaseu.sh, simply type dri and it will fill in the rest, provided you don't have 2 names starting with "dri" and if you do, add another character to make it "driv" and try again.
    
7. Almost any command can be read about in full using the manpage or by typing -h or --help after writing the initial command.  This syntax is either man command_name,  command_name -h, or command_name --help.
    
8. To get even more information, you can use info.  A command can be searched for by using info command_name.  For most of these commands which are part of the coreutils package, one can find info as well using info coreutils command_name invocation where command_name is replaced by the command searched for.
    
9. Almost any command can also explicitly display what is happening.  This is done usually by the -v or --verbose
    
10. You can specify multiple command flags to a command at a time to get more information (see the ls -al example below.)
     
11. Command names are not always obtuse - due to space limitations in the old days of Unix they were shortened, and the conventions stuck.

Commands:

cd -> Used to navigate the directories.  You can move to any location by path.

1. cd This will move you back to your home, same as cd ~
2. cd .. This will take you back exactly one directory.  Starting in /home/justin/Desktop, cd .. will put me into /home/justin.  This can be expanded upon, cd ../../ from the Desktop location instead will move me 2 back, from my Desktop to /home.
3. cd foldername/ This will move you forward to the given folder in your current folder.  Take note of the missing prefix / it is an important omission.  if I am in /home/justin and I want to get to Desktop, I must type cd Desktop/ without the / before Desktop.  Typing / before it places us in the root of file system, which is incorrect.
4. cd /some/other/path This will take you to the specified folder path, supposing it exists as typed exactly.  Don't forget your tab completion!

ls -> Used to list folder contents.  You can view many kinds of file and folder attributes.

1. ls By itself, ls will simply list all your files in the current folder.  From fact #4, this literally does ls .
2. ls -l Provides a longer listing format including owners, permissions, size, and date modified.
3. ls -a Displays hidden files and folders as well as the normal listing.
4. ls -al Combine options to display both hidden files and in the long format.
5. ls -h Show file sizes in human readable format (K, M, Gbyte) filesizes instead of bytes.  Often used in conjuction with the -l flag.
6. You can view files in directories you are not even in.  If I am in /home/justin/Desktop, and I want to view a file in /home/justin, I can do ls ../ list files one directory back (and not have to go back to do so.)

cp -> Copy files

1. cp file /path/to/folder Copies specified file to the given path.
2. cp -r folder /path/to/folder  Copies recursively the contents of the folder to another folder.
3. cp *.extension /path/to/folder  Copies files matching the given extension to the new folder.  To copy all .doc files, it becomes cp *.doc /path/to/folder and the folder must exist.
4. cp name* /path/to/folder  Copies all files starting with 'name' to the given folder.  To copy all files starting with example, it becomes cp example* /path/to/folder and the folder must exist.

mv -> Move files

1. The syntax of mv is similar to the example above with cp exempt for example #2.  mv does not take the -r flag since moving a folder also moves its contents.  The syntax is not exact in all instances, but works with the above examples.  Consult your manpages for more details.

rm -> Remove files

1. For all intents and purposes, removing files via rm is permanent.  It does not use the Trash bin.  Use with caution and make sure you are deleting explicitly what you want, not what you think you want.  If you decide to get fancy with your delete commands, it's probably going to come back to bite you.
2. rm file  Remove the specified file from the system.
3. rm -r folder  Remove the specified folder from the system
4. rm -rf folder  Removes the specified folder forcefully from the system.  This command can severely break your configuration if used incorrectly as it will not prompt you if something critical is being deleted.  If you have to use this, chances are something more is broken or there was a mistake made.  This should only be used as an absolute last resort method and is not recommended.

nano -> full command line text editor

1. One can edit files using nano in a terminal to do quick and dirty files all the way up to full configurations.  It's handy, but keep in mind it handles plain text files and programming files, things like MS Word documents will not open properly! 
2. If a file is owned by root, it is not editable as a normal user.  nano must be prefixed with sudo in order to save changes.  Otherwise, it will open in read-only mode.
3. nano newfile.whatever  Nano creates a new file of the specified name and opens it for editing.
4. nano existing_file  Nano opens the existing file for editing.
5. From inside nano
   1. Save file using the ctrl+o key combination, and either change the name or press entier to keep the same name.  This will save the file.
   2. Exit nano by using ctrl+x key combination.  If you have unsaved changes, it will ask if you want to save.

mkdir -> Create directories

1. mkdir folder_name  Creates the folder with the specified name
2. mkdir -p /path/to/folder/name  Creates each folder as necessary.  To create folder /home/justin/newfolder/2ndfolder, and only /home/justin exists, using mkdir -p will make both directories newfolder and 2ndfolder.

ps -> List processes

1. ps aux  List all processes in detail running on the system, including user, Process ID (PID), and name of process.  Using this, one can view their process list and if necessary, kill unnecessary or stalled processes.

kill / killall / xkill -> Kill offending processes.

1. kill PID  PID is a number referencing the offending process.  One should obtain the PID from a command like ps aux.  If a process refuses to die, one can alternatively specify kill -9 PID which should terminate the process by any means, even uncleanly or if it will mess up the system.
2. killall program  Killall kills *by name* all instances of said program.  If there are for example 3 firefox sessions open, killall firefox will do just that; kill all firefox sessions.  kill would simply take the specified PID of the offending firefox process you wish to kill, and kill that one only.
3. xkill is a GUI way to click and kill windows.  Typing in xkill should present a skull-and-crossbones icon, and the next window clicked on will be killed.

Pipes  ->  The most useful thing you will learn in *NIX.  Redirecting output of a program to anothers input.

1. Pipes are represented by the ' straight bar ' otherwise known as the ' | ' key.
2. It is a rarely used key in Windows, it is often found on the backslash key.
3. They are used to link commands together.  Pipes take the output of one command and route it to be used as input for a second command chained together.
4. Consult more online resources with information about pipes and their use as there are volumes.

> and >> redirectors  -> Send output to a file instead of the terminal.

1. > is used to *overwrite* currently existing files contents and replace with the output from the new command.
2. >> is used to *append* information to currently existing files.  This is useful for logging.
3. Example: ps aux > processes.log  Sends the output of ps aux to the file processes.log for viewing the command output in a text editor and overwrites the current contents of the file. 

tee -> Send output to both a file and the terminal

1. tee is used in conjunction with a ' | ' in order to take the command output and send it elsewhere.  This is useful if there are errors which fly by the screen before you can read them, this way whatever goes on the screen is also captured to a file.
2. Example: dmesg | tee boot.txt would run the command dmesg which shows the initial boot info, and the ' | ' sends the output of dmesg to tee, which then does its job by sending it to the terminal and to the log file boot.txt.

File Execution -> So you want to execute files or programs from the terminal?  Make sure it's  marked executable.  If not, see Quick Tip #4 below.

1. Need to execute a file in the current directory after it is marked executable?  The ./ operator can execute the file as a normal user provided you do not need root rights.  ./ literally means "in the current directory" so it does not work on files outside of the present directory.
    
2. Need to execute a file not in the current directory?  You must pass the path to the proper executing program.  If it is a python program, it's python /path/to/file and if it is a shell file, it is sh /path/to/file as an example.  There are of course other programs, but these will be the most common for beginners.
    
3. Need to execute a file with root rights because you received operation not permitted?  Prefix the command with sudo.  Thus, from the above example, sudo python /path/to/file will execute the script with root rights.
    
4. Need to execute a GUI program from the terminal?  Simply type the program name (case sensitive!) and it will launch.  This will render the current terminal unusable.  Closing the terminal while the program is open will kill the program.  A better way is to background the program, using program_name & and then typing the word exit at the terminal to close it and keep the process running.
    
5. Need to run a GUI program with root rights from the terminal?  Prefix it with gksudo or gksu and not sudo.  Using sudo to launch GUI applications is a bad habit and should be avoided.
    
6. Do not, do *not* use sudo simply because something receives "Operation not permitted."  Keep in mind what you are doing as you can absolutely *destroy* systems by running commands in the wrong place with root rights.  This point cannot be emphasized enough.  Make sure your files come from reputable sources.

Quick tips:

1. Lost yourself in a directory?  Not sure where you are?  Type pwd to print working directory.
    
2. Want to calculate your disk space quickly?  df -h can give you a quick checkup.
    
3. Want to calculate the size of a folder or file quickly?  du -cksh target_name can do exactly that.  Want to calculate the size of the current folder?  du -cksh .
    
4. Need to mark a file executable?  chmod +x filename can do that.  Next time you see a file you need to execute and it is not marked executable, now you know how to fix it.
    
5. Want to mount an iso like Daemon-Tools on Windows?  Linux has this functionality built in.  Simply create a directory somewhere, say /home/justin/isomount, and issue the command mount -o loop /path/to/myisofile.iso /home/justin/isomount and the contents will be mounted inside that folder.
    
6. Run a command before, you need to re-run it, but you can't really remember what it was exactly?  Type history into the terminal and it will print out your command history.  Want to clear your history?  history -c will wipe the information.

Comments
2 days ago	kp99	Thanks. Very Helpful...
1 week ago	Thinker	Nice
2 weeks ago	mdouzzi	Great job! Very helpful for a beginner
2 weeks ago	arovella	Very good.
2 weeks ago	backbone	great tutorials for novice
3 weeks ago	mark-anthony161	Great... Thanks
4 weeks ago	NuR1L	terimakasih
1 month ago	RavingLoony	Good for a start but a lot of newbies will still be confused - not necessarily by the article but words like promote/demote when voting - today people use like/not like whether we like it or not! And I speak as a wrinklie.
1 month ago	antonrorepande	waow, good share.. as a beginner, good for me..
1 month ago	chris2006	Great help! Thank you!
1 month ago	mdouzzi	Thank you very much for this tutorial
1 month ago	zrslg01	Nice and handy, but still rtfm :) I know one guy, who can really benefit from this. best
1 month ago	XavierTG	Thanks a lot for your tutorial.
1 month ago	hexmodz	its help me alot
2 months ago	capeferrelometal	This is just great. I just installed Mint 12 LXDE, and love it so far. Never liked the theatrics of Windows. I have not typed a command since I used Wang UNIX systems mearly two decades ago, so it's great to get back into the fun. The tutorial is wonderful. Nice to know things under the flash is still intuitive and useful! Thanks!
2 months ago	paulthepenguin	This is great for a new user like me :) thank you
2 months ago	hankrich	thanks, this is very helpful.
2 months ago	AllanLindh	Unix is a beast, but you almost made me smile. Thanks very much. Long live VMS!
2 months ago	newbiewon	I have learned a great deal about Linux history, how to load opperating systems, how to coexist with windows and how to recover from some disasters. Now I want to become a Linux user and this is a great start. Thanks for thinking of the newbies!
3 months ago	gtones	can these commands dependent on which version of Mint someone is using?
3 months ago	soulrain	Just went threw this list. Great stuff. Thanks for taking the time to upload it.
3 months ago	apet666	thanks man.. god bless..
3 months ago	AshBaby	very useful
3 months ago	userXVII	Great place to start. Thanks.
3 months ago	joroxrd	Thank you very much!
3 months ago	tms2004	Thanks really helpful .
3 months ago	kututech	Nice share, very helpful for me..
4 months ago	fxb3	Very nice, well-written tutorial.
4 months ago	sillyousu	hi . Can I translate it into Chinese and post it on my blog?
4 months ago	adibhanna	this is very useful! thank you.
4 months ago	dazw2000	This post is great for the shell commands in a terminal window. Wishing that i had read them as these are of great use to new users. May be i shall not keep going in circles. Many Thaks
5 months ago	stonetrek	Thanks, just what I needed
5 months ago	24horsonline	Poderia atualizar para o novo mint It could bring up to date for new mint
5 months ago	nicabod	Woopsie! Misplaced closing double quote... Suggested edit: "... directory somewhere, say /home/justin/isomount, and issue the command mount -o loop /path/to/myisofile.iso /home/justin/isomount" <---HERE and the contents will be mounted inside that folder. I added blank lines, Should be: Suggested edit: "... directory somewhere, say /home/justin/isomount, and issue the command mount -o loop /path/to/myisofile.iso /home/justin/isomount and the contents will be mounted inside that folder." I added blank lines, (et cetera). Sorry! (OK with me if the @moderator fixes my original post and deletes this.) Would be very nice to have a Preview function in this software. Also desirable would be a time-limited (half hour?) ability to edit your message after posting, and enable the Insert key. Best, [nb]
5 months ago	nicabod	Oh, dear. I just spent about half an hour typing a moderately-long comment, then hit Promote (before "Add comment"), and lost everything. Should have known better. Only an expert could dig through RAM and (maybe) find what I'd typed. Second time will omit and be more concise: Anyhow: I've come across various explanations of [bash] and the CLI, but usually abandoned them part way through. This is, imho, excellent writing, as many others have said. (I didn't read most comments, just scanned). A few thoughts: If you ever do [rm -rf], do seriously consider clearing history [history -c] as soon as you can, so you won't do {up arrow} Enter. I'm still mostly mystified by loop mounting. Your example is helpful, but there's a quite-unfortunate line break just where a newbie doesn't really know whether to type a space or not. Suggested edit: "... directory somewhere, say /home/justin/isomount, and issue the command mount -o loop /path/to/myisofile.iso /home/justin/isomount" and the contents will be mounted inside that folder. I added blank lines, because line endings will differ once this is posted*. It's better to have a too-short line precede an important command (or other input [text]) than to risk embedding a {newline} within a command (or URL). *Old-timers will recall a need to hit Enter at the end of every line; this was before automatic line wrap and flowed format became common. This collection is good enough to merit translation (as in Wikipedia). (Care to make a Wikipedia article out of this? That way, volunteers will translate!) Best regards, [nb] midnight hacker in 1960
5 months ago	paladin_knight	Clear enough but please add these commands: 1. uname 2. whoami 3. which 4. su 5. passwd etc.. there are tons of basic commands. need to be updated.
5 months ago	thetomster	very useful for cli newbies like me.
5 months ago	IslandWolf	Thanks for the info, both old and new!
5 months ago	thoudahl	Nice first introduction. thx
5 months ago	Arundathi	Merci beaucoup c'est très clair !
5 months ago	paull59	Thanks this was a great refresher....
5 months ago	andrei90	Thank you very much for all the details. Cheers mate.
6 months ago	inf3RNo	thank you =) nice tut.
6 months ago	salmane	clear enough for newbie, i like this.
6 months ago	nassosdim	Excellent resource for beginners. I'll share it on twitter :)
6 months ago	coolsaddam2525	THANKS....
6 months ago	krause	Excelente para quem está começando a trabalhar com linux
6 months ago	linuxfanatik	About turning this tutorial into a PDF file, I have (Under Libreoffice Writer) a facility whereby when I use my Epson Printer to Print the document under Libreoffice (you just copy and paste it into a blank document, name it then go to print) you get the choice of printing to file, actually print, or turn it into a PDF form - which is great! Linuxfanatik
6 months ago	linuxfanatik	I have several 'guides' to the CLI (Command Line Interface) Console or Terminal using various Bash or Shell Scripts, but the one above is the most clear and useful one! I used to do admin with Unix some forty years ago, when I worked for Plessey PLC, but when you move onto something else you tend to forget familiar scripts and texts, and anyway, Unix has moved on from Bell Associates and Berkeley University in California and improved since BSD and Solaris came out. I miss Solaris as a Free unix system since Oracle took it over - who can afford to pay the prices Oracle want to charge when your retired? I will be happy to see other Tutorials by Justin, like Clem , he's got a great following and knows a lot that we can all use in Linux Mint.Linuxfanatik
6 months ago	moxamandeel	Thanks It's nice
7 months ago	odyszor	Thanks, very nice intro
7 months ago	dwcunplugged	This is a very good intro to the command line. I just started studying for the LPI level 1 exam, and this is very much the first stuff you learn. Great job.
7 months ago	Examiner	Thank you! From a newbie...
8 months ago	Kulato	Very much needed for those who are new to Linux.
8 months ago	geomcd1949	refrigerator: n. L., a device which, if you look inside it, you should find a cold beer.
8 months ago	ranjith	this is great it had helped me to built knowledge a lot thank u!
8 months ago	sidsparks	I made a pdf of this in response to a couple of comments but don't know where to put it to link to so here is another option. The whole of this can be copied by selecting the text using the mouse in the same way that you would in a text editor or word processor then use the normal copy command (Ctrl C ) or right click and select copy. The text can then be pasted into any editor or word processor of your choice using either Ctrl V or the paste command from the edit menu. Once the text has been pasted it can be printed or saved.
8 months ago	Nills	really thank you. very helpful info for me.
8 months ago	Vishal	nice one got to know commands which i was not aware..
8 months ago	erictennant	Great for beginners, I think a PDF file would be a good idea.
8 months ago	jarhead0311	B nice to have 'Print out' button on these pages.
9 months ago	Labby	Very nice tutorial! Most of these commands I already knew, but it's a great resource for beginners.
9 months ago	kingugo	very helpful info for me as a newbie as i hope to learn more. wont forget to say; it was hard to read and practice
9 months ago	blueXrider	What would be nice here is to wrap this all up and have a download-able PDF
9 months ago	blueXrider	Excellent information
9 months ago	robman1987	Good
9 months ago	ivy_s	Very good for newbies.
9 months ago	breaker	@peterdoug - http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/ The entire http://tldp.org is awesome, it stands for; The Linux Documentation Project Here's a good jumping off point also - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/categories.html
9 months ago	RavS	Great! Thanks :)
9 months ago	Seoolas	Very helopful. I shall be refering back here a lot as I go...
9 months ago	pois3	all this was needed, it takes time to learn this. thank you. Most excellent!
9 months ago	Biren	Useful indeed. Thankyou.
9 months ago	kenhall5551	Very good tutorial. great starting point for newbies. Thanks
10 months ago	cwoodsp	As a newbie to Mint and, by extension Linux, it's handy to have easy-to-follow tips and guides. This is one such resource. Well done.
10 months ago	dodjie60	And to add to all this great tutorial, my favorite is typing xman in terminal to show manual browser in GUI. I've been using this since Red Hat 9 and SuSE 9 (I think).
10 months ago	LONNIEFUTURE	Unknown by most you can find and install from the menu as well as any terminal "it's awsome" great thinking.
11 months ago	peterdoug	Hi, Very helpful. I would like to see a link to a similarly helpful article that explains the Linux file system as it is so different from Windows. That would help me get my head around the terminal. Newbie to Linux, who's used UNIX, DOS, Windows (95-XP) to do work. Many thanks
11 months ago	jesusmiranda	Really helpful for me... very good tutorial. Many Thanks, man!
11 months ago	genothomas	Nice article...
11 months ago	Leaf	great tutorial
11 months ago	justin	mysoomro: Thanks for the comment. :) You don't fear the command line, you always keep in mind that just because something doesn't work, don't prefix it with sudo by force of habit. Becoming accustomed to a prompt or denial of an action due to improper rights to the system is no reason for negligence. Please don't change the meaning by taking only a snippet of the intended comment. Fearing the command line and not realizing consequences of quick actions are two different things. That is the intention of the warning. I've seen several instances of people who state "It didn't work, so I used sudo" only to cause damage to the system (such as a mass chown -R or something involving local Xorg files.) The goal is to bring this thought to the forefront of the mind when using things that have such impacts. It should not be any different for a personal computer than a mail cluster which hosts 25000 mailboxes - good habits make for proper execution.
11 months ago	mysoomro	Great tutorial. Really helpful for starting up. Thanks. But I have a question. Do we really don't have to fear command line? You first said don't be afraid, then in bold face font, you warned that, : we can *destroy* systems by running commands in the wrong place with root rights .
11 months ago	thecorfiot	Great introduction to Bash. Nobody should fear the command line!
11 months ago	dazw2000	This is great and well worth taking the time and effort to really read and learn what the commands and the extension on the actual end of the command does, in the terminal. and what effects it has on the system when you use them. Its really a must for me and one shall highly recommend this tutorial to others. Thank You So So Much.
11 months ago	intelliginix	Need more info on the bash shell? Check out the Advanced Bash Scripting Guide http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/
11 months ago	Calensito	Really helpful for me, since i install Linux a few days ago. Thanks man!
11 months ago	compuman2004	This is an excellent explanation of terminal commands. Everyone starting out in Linux should read.
11 months ago	michaeltristan	Very well written and to the point. Great set of basic/new user commands clearly defined to get folks on the good foot. Well done, thank you.
11 months ago	kiranguhagarkar	very good tutorial.
1 year ago	pana	Excellent tutorial for beginners, and nice article for anyone on Linux. I know a lot of this commands, but I refresh my knowledge. Thanks.
1 year ago	HarryKnutz	very much needed....thanks for your time and effort
1 year ago	ndixon	Nice introduction, though maybe you could mention that 'mv' is also used to rename files? Also, neat tip: "cd -" alternates between the directory you're in now and your previous location
1 year ago	ashtoash	Somewhere I have already read about that :-) Good article on the basic shell commands.
1 year ago	Mason-	Great, I knew most of this but the information is great and just to review is always a bonus. Thanks a lot.
1 year ago	wanda	Very gread , good tutorial!
1 year ago	samriggs	Great tutorial. Turned it into a pdf and saved it my wife wanted to learn more so now she has a pdf of it. Thanks again
1 year ago	yellowpike	All I can say is THANK YOU !!!
1 year ago	Tonya	Many thanks! Very good tutorial!
1 year ago	thephoenix	A good information for beginner on how to start using the terminal. Nice tutorial, thanks!
1 year ago	jimmyMaruchan	Awesome! Thanks!
1 year ago	Kalingamahesh	very useful..
1 year ago	studentbong	Nice One... This help those who transfer from windows like me.. Thank you so much..
1 year ago	Flanschbob	Great tutorial, but two things are missing to make it complete: - Quick tip #6 should mention the use of the arrow up/down keys to load used commands - It should be mentioned that your password is 'invisible' when typing it in. this is quite unusual and very confusing for beginners.
1 year ago	Saints_Dazza	Nice! Good intro to terminal. Great starting point for a seasoned MS user making the transition to Linux.
1 year ago	kakapyly	thank you!
1 year ago	ikey	@justin: Very nicely done mate :)
1 year ago	kdh333	Nice tutorial...well done...;-)
1 year ago	kevr	@jhpassarelli, this guide is named "The 5-Minute Essential Shell Tutorial", not "The 5-Minute GUI Tutorial"
1 year ago	jhpassarelli	There is a GUI way to mount ISO images... just right click an ISO amage and select "Open With Archive Mounter". That's all there is to it!
1 year ago	baldwiew	Nice and quick for newbies and a reminder for the likes of me, almost stuck in the GUI world.
1 year ago	spyngamerman	thanks nice and easy to understand for a noob like myself command lines normally scare me but your tutorial definitely takes the edge off ;)
1 year ago	henrymak	This is the first time I use Linux and this tutorials is really helpful. I spent a lot of time just trying to understand some of the terms used in the forum and articles. There should be more tutorials like this to help more people like me migrating to Linux. A glossary of the technical words use in Linux will be most welcome.
1 year ago	troyM	Thank Justin, I just used the Terminal to remove openoffice.org and install libreoffice. Keep up the tutorials!
1 year ago	kephalian	I am a newbie to linux, I like this tutorial. I was long trapped with the Vendor M5 WIND0z, shopkeeper GATE.Linux is For me.OPEN SOURCE ROCKZZ.
1 year ago	cphayes0882	Its funny how the terminal at first glance can scare ya, then you read a tutorial like this and see how relatively simple the commands really are. Thanks a million for this tutorial.
1 year ago	Twix2247	I just switch to Linux from windows (Downloaded Julia x64). I was a pretty good windows user and have a lot to learn about Linux. The basic Terminal commands are something new to me since I was used to MSDOS promt. Thanks for posting this.
1 year ago	Blanton	Thank you for this quick guide. Absolutely a must have in the linux communities as a whole :).
1 year ago	linus	Thanks!! It's really helpfull
1 year ago	mikefreeman	Very helpful for the uninitiated! :)
1 year ago	rubul	thnx
1 year ago	kriskardiak	Thanx
1 year ago	angelomat08	just using this linux mint 10..thanks..i'll try this..^^
1 year ago	numn	Everything is in here! Beginners will thank you for this :) Thanx for the tip with gksudo!
1 year ago	Sol_Badguy	Very useful to beginners...
1 year ago	Qruqs	Lots of good information.
1 year ago	grim	Beginner friendly and pretty awesome indeed! Thanks :D
1 year ago	blacx	very useful for the beginners... :)
1 year ago	jahwarrior4179	I Like it.
1 year ago	morris_hunt	I need to download a WIFI driver for Linuxmint 9, that is inside Windows 7, and learn how to make it operate! Can some help me by Chatting in Yahoo Messenger, or by Email,mwh2222@yahoo.com, I am Morris Hunt, mwh2222 in Yahoo Messenger!
1 year ago	dorus43	Very nice summary Thanks
1 year ago	sandyv	Great tips for someone thats as brain dead as I seem to be at times! Thanks much! :)
1 year ago	Shostako	Very good first tutorial for the beginners. Great work.
1 year ago	itonggant	thx
1 year ago	corinoco	Useful also to older noobs coming back to *nix after an 18-year absence.
1 year ago	SeaCorpseDan	Thanks for taking the time to write this tutorial. Really helped out a linux noob.
1 year ago	linXea	I like the idea of a quick how-to ... Of course the "man" command will be the most effective to learn the actual use of the commands.
1 year ago	merelyjim	Printed to PDF so I can have something to share with other while in an off-line environment. Nicely done.
1 year ago	johnnyp	very nice ... i learned some new trix
1 year ago	Dervheid	If all tutorials were this well done, there'd be a whole lot more people digging in deeper. I wanna learn, this doesn't scare me off... :)
1 year ago	southsidesam	Good noobe article
1 year ago	eerika_	Awesome article, Justin. Good work Erika
1 year ago	Ki3rk3gaard	Truly MINTy fresh now I can be a hero in a half shell ! I have been putting it off but you've removed some of that initial aversion .
1 year ago	crivote	most useful for newcomers and people like me, used to just c&p terminal commands from googled tips pages. Thanks for providing some light and clear explanations.
1 year ago	Lexux	Great Work, very good tutorial. Thanks :)
1 year ago	udana071	As a beginner I think I've 2 read this many times.. :D
1 year ago	tincotts	Tincotts Having used Linux for 6 or more years, Ive always worried about using the terminal, even though familiar (once!) with the old Dos notation. I feel far more confident now in attempting to try my hand. Very grateful for the info.
1 year ago	Shardon	For someone who was raised on the old DOS command environment, this was most helpful. Amazing how old habits seem to just hang out in the memory banks and when in terminal the urge to use them just comes crashing forward. Nice quick overview and very helpful.
1 year ago	sayry	********
1 year ago	d_zaxc	good work. thanks.
1 year ago	KittyKatt	Awesome article, justin. Good work. :D
1 year ago	gallus_gallus	the shell never goes out of style, thanks for making it easier for us
1 year ago	Ed_Frost	Very helpful, thanks a lot!
1 year ago	m4daredsun	Very nice. Thanks
1 year ago	wdliming	good
1 year ago	gee7	Good article, Justin. Two things, though, Page Down and Q. Remember as a newboy to Linux how easy it is to get baffled. For example, after using the command "man application-name" or "info application-name" such as "info gnome-terminal" some of the information will be shown. It would be useful to explain in the tutorial (1) how to see the rest of the info by repeatedly pressing the Down Arrow on the keyboard or by one click on Page Down and (2) more importantly, how to escape from this info and return to your home at ~$: by pressing the Q key (for quit). I guess that many inexperienced users can only escape from their current page by closing the terminal altogether and then opening it up again to start something new. Also some new users may worry that the processes will continue after closing the terminal, so It's also worth mentioning at the beginning that that closing the terminal by typing "exit" ("exit" and then "exit" to close down root, then user) or by clicking the cross in the top right corner will kill the processes that you have been running in the terminal, either as root or as user. As an introduction, how to open and close an application (and how to escape from some its processes) is always a good start. It's all very useful stuff, your article can then move from the most basic to the semi-skilled. Thanks for caring.
1 year ago	thermodynamics4	Very well done, i was looking in another places and is a bunch of commands that is not easy to learn at first look. So this is nice and usefull, Suhana point me to the right direction. Thanks Mint Community!
1 year ago	nolarut	Great info, thanks for posting.
1 year ago	kevr	seen tons of new folks asking for pointers to a page with beginning tutorials to the linux shell. this one is laid out right here for you, just don't skip sections. very nice :]
1 year ago	Deadguy	very nice intro to the shell Justin!!
1 year ago	navigator1	good job !!!!!!!thanks
1 year ago	leleyx	Really liked it, I'm a complet n00b to linux, but been playing with MS Command Prompt since monkey years, and love that I can do it again, weird, huh?
1 year ago	Karlozkiller	Really good one, been using different Linux distributions on and off but never really learned too much about shell scripts and such. This is great!
1 year ago	hatani	Thanks! I know some of the basics, but stuff about (gk)sudo and iso mounting was very helpful.
1 year ago	heltonbiker	Hi, Man! I was thinking about a tutorial on shell script, which we haven't here yet, and I found this one. It's very good! So I think you could write the next Shell Tutorial, this time teaching people how to save the commands to a .sh file, writing the shebang, making it executable, and so on. It is amazing that a process like this is almost unknown outside linux world, and I for one had been using it a lot earlier if someone taught me how easy and useful it can be. Thanks for caring!
1 year ago	justin	Thank you everyone for the positive votes, it is greatly appreciated! If there is anything one thinks should be added, please post. Thanks.
1 year ago	Bunstonious	Good start Justin. This is a sorely needed start for those users that "just don't quite get it" but I am afraid that there are many others that still wouldn't be bothered. I for one appreciate the effort that you have put into this. Kudos.
1 year ago	justin	@dbpatankar - Agreed, I'm still on the fence about that actually. Abuse of rm -rf just like any others can have drastic consequences. I'll add it with warnings.
1 year ago	dbpatankar	Great start....... congrats! may be 'rm -rf folder' will also be useful. Since no user will like to confirm descending in each folder.
1 year ago	justin	This is probably incomplete at the current time, but your thoughts are appreciated. Please let me know. Thank you.

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