Shell Access
- Go to a beach (preferably not one that makes you old);
- Look for something that looks like this:
- The command is
ssh
.
loggin in
Open the Terminal
You need to open a terminal window to log into the shell. The way you do that is different depending on what your computer is running:
Windows 11
Open "Terminal"
Windows 10
Open "Windows PowerShell"
MacOS
Open "Terminal"
Linux
It might be called "Terminal", "Console" or "Konsole" depending on what distribution you're using.
Log In
When you open the terminal, you should see a place where you can type words and such. This is called the "prompt".
Ok so you're gonna want to type in ssh <your username>@pronounmail.com
(where <your username>
is replaced with your actual username) and press enter (or return).
At this point it should ask you for your password. Type it in (keeping in mind that it won't actually show the letters you're typing it for securitie) and hit enter once more.
Ok at this point you should have reached pronounmail.com's shell and you've done it good job i love you dearly
how 2 use da shell
At this point you should be connected to pronounmail.com's shell, so you can now run wacky commands on the server!!
You can think of the shell as a really fucked up Start Menu. You can type the name of a program at the prompt and press enter, and the shell will attempt to locate and run it. Everything you type after the name of the program is an "argument", which you can use to tell the program what you want it to do. Take this command for example:
mkdir my_folder
This uses mkdir
(short for "Make Directory" ("directory" is another word for "folder")) to create a folder called my_folder
. In this example, mkdir
is the name of the program and my_folder
is the single argument.
most people call the first bit the command and also call the whole command a command. good for them :)
assorted tips
Lots of good information at https://fishshell.com/docs/current/
- Press Ctrl+C to tell the currently running command to stop.
- Use Ctrl+W to delete the previous word
- To copy and paste things, use Ctrl+Shift+C/V (or Cmd+C/V on a mac).
- Press Tab to try and autocomplete a thing, keep pressing Tab for more autocompletions.
- Type the name of a command and press Alt+H to see helpful information about it
- Press the up or down arrow keys to go through your command history
list of common commands
name of thing | what it does | example usage |
---|---|---|
touch | Creates a file with no content | touch my_file.txt
|
rm | Deletes a file | rm secrets.txt
|
cp | Create a copy of a file | cp a.txt b.txt
|
mv | Move a file to a new location | mv a.txt b.txt
|
mkdir | Create a new directory (folder) | mkdir wacky_folder
|
clear | Clear the screen | clear
|
ls | List files in the current directory | ls
|
cd | Move into a directory | cd wacky_folder
|
getting help
Commands have many options which can be hard to remember. Luckily, there's plenty of resources you can consult for help on how to use a command.
man pages
The man
command (short for "manual") lets you search detailed documentation about commands and more. If you're not sure about the ls
command, just type man ls
and hit enter. You can use the f or b keys to scroll forward and backward and press q when you're ready to quit.
tldr pages
The man pages are super detailed but sometimes all you want are some short examples. If that's the situation you're facing, the tldr pages can help. You can view the results in your browser, or install the tldr software locally.
help flag
Some (but not all) commands have built-in help. How to get this to show up will vary from case to case but often using a flag is all you need to do. For example, if you're confused about the git
command git --help
can point you in the right direction.