Linux Command Line Basics

Beginner

Approx. 1 weeks

Assumes 6hrs/wk (work at your own pace)

Join thousands of students Course Summary

We have built this course for beginners who have no experience with the Linux system and the command-line interface.

In this course, you'll learn the basics of the command line interface of a Linux server: the terminal and shell (GNU Bash). This course includes an introduction to files and directories in the Linux filesystem.

Why Take This Course?

Most servers on the Internet today run on Linux or other Unix-like systems. Installing, configuring, and troubleshooting often relies on the command line interface. This, accordingly, is foundational web knowledge, and in fact many of our intermediate and advanced courses rely on a familiarity with the command-line interface to run servers, work with version control systems and more.

Prerequisites and Requirements

To take this course, you should have beginner-level experience in a programming languages such as Python or JavaScript. While this course does not involve doing any programming, it does use concepts that are familiar to the beginning programmer such as "function", "expression", and "string".

Note: This course is intended for beginners to the shell environment. If you have done shell scripting or other extensive use of the shell before, this course will probably be too introductory for you. You might want to check out our Configuring Linux Web Servers course.

See the Technology Requirements for using Udacity.

What Will I Learn? Projects Project: Linux Server Configuration You will take a baseline installation of a Linux distribution on a virtual machine and prepare it to host your web applications, to include installing updates, securing it from a number of attack vectors and installing/configuring web and database servers. *Note:* If you have no experience working in the shell we recommend starting withLinux Command Line Basics. Otherwise, you can jump straight intoConfiguring Linux Web Servers. Syllabus Lesson 1: Get Into the Shell

In this lesson, you'll learn about the terminal user interface and how you can interact with a Linux server using shell commands.

Lesson 2: Shell Commands

There are different kinds of shell commands that work with the terminal in different ways. This lesson also covers the use of the Linux manual (manpages) to expand your knowledge of shell commands.

Lesson 3: The Linux Filesystem

Working with files and directories is a big part of using the shell. In this lesson you'll learn basic commands for interacting with the filesystem.