Taming The Terminal

We take a look at how standard Unix File Permissions work, and look at how to understand the permissions on existing files and folders, but not at how to change them. We also cover the fact that the standard unix file permissions are now only a sub-set of the file permissions on OS X and Linux (OS X also supports file ACLs, and Linux has SELinux as an optional extra layer of security).

In this installment we’ll look at how to navigate around the Unix/Linux/OS X filesystem in a Bash command shell.

We discuss the concept of a file system in detail. We described how filesystems contain folders which contain files or folders, and we described the different ways in which Windows and Linux/Unix/OS X combine all the filesystems on our computers into a single name-space, within which every file has a unique ‘path’ (F:\myFolder\myFile.txt -v- /Volumes/myThumbDrive/myFolder/myFile.txt).

In this installment, we look at OS X’s Terminal.app, the anatomy of the Bash command prompt, and the anatomy of a Unix/Linux command.

In this first segment we'll lay a very basic foundation. We plan to take things very slowly with this series, so Bart gives us a sort of 40,000ft view of command shells – some context, some history, a very general description of what command shells do, and a little bit on why they are still very useful in the modern GUI age

Taming the Terminal is a collaboration between Bart Busschots and Allison Sheridan. The tutorials were written by Bart, and hosted on this site, and there are matching conversations with Allison Sheridan on the NosillaCast Podcast. In Taming the Terminal, Bart Busschots guides Allison Sheridan through a series of tutorials to help get people comfortable in the Terminal, learn efficient ways of controlling your computer, and diagnosing network problems. While both hosts are using OS X, every effort is made to include both Linux and Windows comparative commands where possible. Bart is a Linux system administrator by day, is hosts the Let’s Talk Apple and Let’s Talk Photography podcasts. Allison is the host of the NosillaCast podcast, A Technology Geek Podcast with an EVER so Slight Macintosh Bias. Special thanks go to Steve Sheridan who suggested converting this series into a stand-alone podcast, and did the time-consuming and monotonous audio editing needed to extract the segments from the NosillaCast and re