Overview

Teaching: 5 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

Objectives

You need to download some files to follow this lesson:

1. Make sure you’re still connected to LONI. Download shell-novice-data.zip using the following command:

   wget http://swcarpentry.github.io/shell-novice/data/shell-novice-data.zip 
   

2. Unzip/extract the file (ask your instructor if you need help with this step). You should end up with a new folder called data-shell in your user home.

   unzip shell-novice-data.zip
   

3. Type cd, then press the Enter key. That last step will make sure you start with your home folder as your working directory.

In the lesson, you will find out how to access the data in this folder.

Reference

How to Use Terminal on a Mac

Windows

Computers with Windows operating systems do not automatically have a Unix Shell program installed. In this lesson, we encourage you to use an emulator included in Git for Windows, which gives you access to both Bash shell commands and Git. If you are attending a SWC session, it is likely you have already received instructions on how to install Git for Windows.

Once installed, you can open a terminal by running the program Git Bash from the Windows start menu.

Other solutions are available for running Bash commands on Windows systems. There is now a Bash shell command-line tool available for Windows 10. Additionally, you can run Bash commands on a remote UNIX computer or server from your Windows machine. This can be done through a Secure Shell (SSH) client. One such client available for free for Windows computers is PuTTY. See the reference below for information on installing and using PuTTY, using the Windows 10 command-line tool, or installing and using a UNIX/Linux emulator.

Reference

• Git for Windows
• How to Install Bash shell command-line tool on Windows 10
• Install and Use the Linux Bash Shell on Windows 10
• Using the Windows 10 Bash Shell
• Using a UNIX/Linux emulator (Cygwin) or Secure Shell (SSH) client (Putty)

Key Points