Note: The exercises here are meant for Linux and macOS. That doesn't mean that they cannot be executed in a Windows operating system but it might require some adaptation of the syntax.

Running a terminal

Exercise 1: Answer

By examining the menu items for your terminal program, figure out how to create a new tab.

Run a new terminal: (ctrl/command) + alt + t
Create a new tab: (ctrl/command) + t

Our First Command

Exercise 1: Answer

Write a command that prints out the string “hello, world”. Extra credit: do it two different ways, both with and without using quotation marks.

echo "hello, world"
echo hello, world

Exercise 2: Answer

Type the command echo 'hello (with a mismatched single quote), and then get out of trouble using the terminate shortcut, either CTRL+C or COMMAND+C depending on the operating system.

echo 'hello
(ctrl/command) + c

Man pages

Exercise 1: Answer

According to the man page, what is the official description of echo on your system?

display a line of text

Exercise 2: Answer

By reading the man page for echo, determine the command needed to print out “hello” without the trailing newline, and verify using your terminal that it works as expected.

echo -n [text]

Editing the line

Exercise 1: Answer

Using the up arrow, print to the screen the strings “fee”, “fie”, “foe”, and “fum” without retyping echo each time.

echo "fee"
press up-arrow, replace "fee" with "fie" and so on

Exercise 2: Answer

Use any combination of Ctrl-A, Ctrl-E, arrow keys, or Option-click to change the occurrences of the short s to the archaic long s “ſ”.

ctrl-A
ctrl-E
arrow keys to navigate and edit

Cleaning up

Exercise 1: Answer

Clear the contents of the current tab.

clear 
ctrl-l

Exercise 2: Answer

Open a new tab, execute echo ’hello’, and then exit.

ctrl + alt + t
echo 'hello'
exit or ctrl-d

Summary

Exercise 1: Answer

Write a command to print the string Use "man echo", including the quotes; i.e., take care not to print out Use man echo instead.

echo 'Use "man echo"'

Exercise 2: Answer

By running man sleep, figure out how to make the terminal “sleep” for 5 seconds, and execute the command to do so. After waiting the requisite 5 seconds, execute the command to sleep for 5000 seconds, realise that’s well over an hour, and then use the instructions from Box 4 to get out of trouble.

sleep 5s
sleep 5000s
ctrl-c or Esc