Home>Courses>Harnessing the Power of the Command-Line Interface

Harnessing the Power of the Command-Line Interface

Gain insights into the command-line interface, delve into navigating file systems, creating scripts, and automating tasks to enhance productivity and control your computer efficiently.

Beginner

120 Lessons

5h 30min

Certificate of Completion

Gain insights into the command-line interface, delve into navigating file systems, creating scripts, and automating tasks to enhance productivity and control your computer efficiently.

AI-POWERED

Explanations

AI-POWERED

Explanations

This course includes

395 Playgrounds

10 Quizzes

Course Overview

What You'll Learn

Course Content

Course Overview

In this course, you will get the chance to explore the command-line interface (CLI), starting with basics like navigating file systems and working with directories and files. Then, you will use those building blocks to tackle more advanced features and tasks within the CLI. You will also learn to turn basic commands into executable scripts and easily automate common tasks. This course will empower you to put the interface to work, take complete control of your computer, and hack your way to productivity.

In this course, you will get the chance to explore the command-line interface (CLI), starting with basics like navigating file s...Show More

What You'll Learn

Understand the working of the command-line interface.

Learn how to create an Ubuntu virtual machine.

Understand navigating the filesystem and directories.

Learn about networking tools like web APIs, cURL, Secure Shell, rsync, and Netcat.

Learn about executing programs and automating tasks, including scripts.

Understand program tools like ranger, pandoc, direnv, HTTP, Pygments, jrln, jq, and Siege.

Understand the working of the command-line interface.

Course Content

Introduction

13 Lessons

Get familiar with the command-line interface, navigation, file management, and useful shortcuts.

Why Take This Course?

Accessing the Command-Line Interface

Getting Your Bearings

Creating and Reading Files

Redirecting Streams of Text

Installing Additional Programs with a Package Manager

Downloading Files

Useful Shortcuts and Commands

Quiz 1

Creating an Ubuntu Virtual Machine with VirtualBox

7 Lessons

Unpack the core of setting up and optimizing an Ubuntu VM using VirtualBox.

Creating a New Virtual Machine

Configuring a Network

Installing the Guest Operating System

Working with Snapshots

Installing Software with the Package Manager

Improving Performance by Installing Guest Additions

Quiz 2

Navigating the Filesystem

9 Lessons

Examine key command-line tools for navigating filesystems, managing disk space, and finding files efficiently.

Listing Files and Directories

Recursive File Listings

Navigating Files and Folders

Relative and Absolute Paths

Dot and Double Dots

Using pushd and popd to Manage a Stack of Directories

Finding Files

Identifying Available Disk Space

Quiz 3

Working with Files and Directories

15 Lessons

Grasp the fundamentals of creating, managing, and organizing files and directories using commands efficiently.

Creating Files

Creating Files with Content

Writing Multiple Lines to a File

Combining Files

Reading the Beginning and End of a File

Creating Directories

Copying Files

Copying Directories

Moving and Renaming Files and Directories

Deleting Files and Directories

Managing File and Directory Permissions

Changing Ownership

Working with Links

Getting More Information About Filesystem Objects

Quiz 4

Streams Of Text

15 Lessons

Solve problems in redirecting streams, piping data, text editing, and advanced text processing.

Introduction

Redirecting Input and Output with File Descriptors

Creating Pipelines of Data

Splitting Streams with tee

Handling Standard Error Streams

Filtering with grep

Removing Characters from Output with cut

Sorting Output

Editing Streams with sed

Saving Changes

Editing Specific Lines

Operating on Lines by Number

Advanced Processing with awk

Using xargs

Quiz 5

The Shell and Environment

12 Lessons

Follow the process of managing environment variables and customizing the shell.

Exploring Environment and Shell Variables

Using Variables

Locating Executables with PATH

Setting Our Own Variables

Supplying Environment Variables to Specific Programs

Customizing a Shell Session

Controlling the History and Setting the Shell Editor

Modifying the PATH

Modifying a Prompt

Creating Shortcuts with Aliases and Functions

Creating Keyboard Shortcuts

Quiz 6

Running and Managing Programs

14 Lessons

Master the steps to efficiently run, manage, and optimize command-line programs and processes.

Running Multiline Commands

Executing a Series of Commands

Running Commands in Subshells

Timing Program Execution

Recording Program Interaction

Reusing Previous Commands and Arguments

Extracting Data with Modifiers

Correcting Mistakes and Altering Previous Commands

Managing Processes and Jobs

Running and Managing Jobs

Terminating Processes

Command Substitution

Keeping Commands Running with GNU Screen

Quiz 7

Networking Tools

13 Lessons

Learn how to use networking tools for IP info, testing connections, web requests, file transfers, and securing networks.

Getting Our Connection Information

Finding Information about Domain Names

Testing Network Connectivity

Making Web Requests with cURL

Downloading Files

Working with Web APIs

Using Secure Shell to Connect to Remote Machines

Transferring Files with scp

Transferring and Synchronizing Files with rsync

Exploring Network Connections and Determining Open Ports

Making Web Requests with NetCat

Serving Files with NetCat

Quiz 8

Automation

7 Lessons

Get started with automating tasks, writing scripts, and enhancing productivity using make and bash.

Introduction

Automating Tasks with make

Writing Bash Scripts

Automating File and Directory Creation

Making an Interactive Script

Automating Our Workstation Setup

Quiz 9

10.

Additional Programs

13 Lessons

Examine essential command-line tools for managing files, documents, tasks, environments, and performance.

Managing Files with ranger

Managing Documents with pandoc

Running Tasks When Files Change

Using direnv to Manage Environment Variables

Monitor and Manage Resources with htop

Autocompleting Files, Directories, Processes, and More with fzf

Serving up a Directory with Python

Viewing Colored Source Code with Pygments

Keeping a Log with jrnl

Manipulating JSON with jq

Inspecting Requests with HTTPie

Testing Performance with Siege

Quiz 10

11.

Conclusion

2 Lessons

Enhance your skills in Bash CLI tools, alternative shells, and real-world application.

What's Next?

Congratulations!

Course Author

The Pragmatic Programmers

Trusted by 2.5 million developers working at companies

"These are high-quality courses. Trust me. I own around 10 and the price is worth it for the content quality. EducativeInc came at the right time in my career. I'm understanding topics better than with any book or online video tutorial I've done. Truly made for developers. Thanks"

Anthony Walker

@_webarchitect_

"Just finished my first full #ML course: Machine learning for Software Engineers from Educative, Inc. ... Highly recommend!"

Evan Dunbar

ML Engineer

"You guys are the gold standard of crash-courses... Narrow enough that it doesn't need years of study or a full blown book to get the gist, but broad enough that an afternoon of Googling doesn't cut it."

Carlos Matias La Borde

Software Developer

"I spend my days and nights on Educative. It is indispensable. It is such a unique and reader-friendly site"

Souvik Kundu

Front-end Developer

"Your courses are simply awesome, the depth they go into and the breadth of coverage is so good that I don't have to refer to 10 different websites looking for interview topics and content."

Vinay Krishnaiah

Software Developer

"I've tried probably 5-7 different sites and Educative is easily the best. It perfectly blends explanation with interactivity"

Eric Downs

Musician/Entrepeneur

Hands-on Learning Powered by AI

See how Educative uses AI to make your learning more immersive than ever before.

Instant Code Feedback

Evaluate and debug your code with the click of a button. Get real-time feedback on test cases, including time and space complexity of your solutions.

AI-Powered Mock Interviews

Put your skills to the test in a simulated interview setting. Receive personalized feedback based on your performance. Available in Premium & Premium Plus plans.

Adaptive Learning

At various checkpoints throughout Educative courses, you will be prompted to take a quick assessment. Receive a condensed curriculum tailored to your strengths and skill gaps.

Explain with AI

Select any text within any Educative course, and get an instant explanation — without ever leaving your browser.

AI Code Mentor

AI Code Mentor helps you quickly identify errors in your code, learn from your mistakes, and nudge you in the right direction — just like a 1:1 tutor!

Free Resources

FOR TEAMS

Interested in this course for your business or team?

Unlock this course (and 1,000+ more) for your entire org with DevPath