The Command Line or Terminal

Introduction to the Command Line or Terminal.

If you want to make use of the advances in front-end development you need to be able to work with the Command Line (Windows) or the Terminal (Mac or *nix machines). This tutorial will show you how easy that is. We’ll start with how to open the Command Line/Terminal and then move on to the most often used commands you need to know. Below you see an image of the Windows Command Line.
Screenshot of Command Line showing commands like cd mkdir etc.
Although this tutorial is written based on working with the Command Line in Windows 7 most of it will apply to other Windows versions and to the Terminal as well. However these are links with introductions to the terminal specific for:

users of a Mac: Introduction to the Mac Terminal.
users of a Unix machine: Unix tutorial about the Terminal (scroll down to “Starting an Unix terminal”)

How to start/open the Command Line

You can open/start the Command Line in Windows in several ways. I’ll explain those options here and afterwards you just work with the option that you prefer.

Method 1: cmd

Click on Windows Start
Type cmd in the search box
press Enter

Method 2: Command Prompt

Click on Windows Start
Choose “All Programs”
Look for “Accessories” and open it
click “Command Prompt”. It might be a good idea to right-click on “Command Prompt” – when you open “Accessories” and choose “Pin to Taskbar” and/or “Pin to Start Menu”. This will allow you to open the Command Line directly on later occasions)

How to open the Command Line might vary slightly with different Windows versions. Click on this link for an explanation about how to open the command line for each Windows version.

Useful commands

I have made a selection of commands that come in useful while working with the Windows Command Line:

CommandWhat does it do?

mkdir subdir_name	Creates a sub directory subdir_name
rd subdir_name	Removes the sub directory subdir_name
cd subdir_name	Changes current directory to sub directory subdir_name
cd ..	Changes current directory to parent directory
dir	Displays all files and directories in current directory
dir/p	Displays one screen of files and directories. Press any key to continue.

To execute any of these commands you always press Enter after inserting a command.