 Web Mechanic

Terminal Tyro

On your Mac, minimize or close other applications (except this one of course), so that your Desktop is cleared.

Now, using Finder, open the Applications link in the left pane.

• Scroll down until you find the Utilities link and click the arrow to open it.
• Inside Utilities scroll down to find Terminal.app.
• Double-click to open it.

This will open a new window with a white or black background and some text at the left margin.

If all went well you should see something like this on a blank screen:

2024-09-07 12:53:04
[~] trudge:

CONGRATULATIONS!

In your Dock, you should also see a new icon like this:

That's the Terminal icon, which like other icons in the Dock, you can either have visible all the time, or disapppear when you close Terminal. Right-click it to see the 'Options'.

At this point it might be useful to organize the 2 windows (Terminal and this one) so you can read this one but still read and have access to the Terminal window. You ARE going to be using it.

In the Terminal window, the text you see is called a prompt - it is prompting you to enter a command.

I've modified my prompt to show some useful information - the date, what directory I'm in, and who I'm logged in as. Your background may be a different color. These are all things you can modify, and we will cover that.

Right now the system is waiting for you to type in a command. Since you probably don't know any commands yet, best to just leave things as they are.

How To Quit Terminal

Keyboard:
• Cmd-q (⌘-q): quit the Terminal application
This also closes the Terminal window
• Cmd-w (⌘-w): closes the window but DOES NOT QUIT Terminal
Mouse:
• Click 'Terminal' in the menu bar
• Click 'Quit Terminal'
• Clicking the red button dot closes the window but DOES NOT QUIT Terminal

Practice opening and closing Terminal.

Special Keys

As you read more about using Terminal, you will see references to press certain key combinations. They are usually placed on both sides of the space bar. Here are a few commonly-used ones:

• Cmd - ⌘ the 'Command' key. Usually both sides of the space bar
This is like a right-click on a mouse
• Ctrl - ^ the 'Control' key. Also beside the space bar
• Alt - ⌥ the 'Alternate' or 'Option' key

Seeing key names separated by a hyphen means to press all keys together, in any order:
Ctrl-Shift-t - press all 3 keys together. (This should NOT do anything)

Next we will cover some basic configuration steps.

Terminal Configuration