Should i learn unix

To view the dot files in the Terminal, type the file listing command ls , along with its - a option for list all , which shows the hidden dot files. When you create a new file, it gets stored in a folder of some sort, even if you save the file to your Desktop which is, in its own right, a folder. But in Unix, folders are referred to as directories. But I digress! And the way you get to a folder er, directory in Unix is to enter its file path , using forward slashes between the directory names.

For example, the file path to your home directory again, think folder is actually:. As noted in the example above, to specify a particular directory or file all you need to do is place the path after this leading slash. This should appeal to anyone who is a part of the Macintosh community: by warming up to Unix and its command line, you are joining the much-lauded free software movement, since OS X is based on a free, open source Unix operating system called Darwin.

That downloads the image file for the cover of this book to your Mac, which is nice, but what if you want to look at it? Instead, with a little help from Unix, you can just type in the following command:. From sophisticated software development environments to web browsers, file transfer utilities to encryption and compression utilities, almost everything you can do in the Aqua interface—and more—can be done with a few carefully chosen Unix commands. To quickly see all of the binary executables—Unix programs—on your system, open the Terminal, hold down the Shift key, and press Esc-?

Pretty nice for something free from Apple, eh? If you want to just jump in and try things out, here are the 10 most common commands, with a very short summary of what each does:.

Displays your present working directory; this is where you currently are in the filesystem. Changes to the specified directory in the filesystem. To read the man page for the ls command, for example, type in man ls. Displays a long text file, one screen at a time. Searches for the specified pattern across as many files as you desire—a fast way to find that email message you sent to Uncle Linder, for example.

Terminal is tucked into the Utilities folder within your Applications folder. Without any arguments, the cd command moves you to your home directory:.

Use the ls command to list the files in your home directory; compare this listing with the picture of the Finder window shown in Figure If you omit the -a option, all the hidden dot files stay hidden in this directory:. And despite the ongoing rumors of its imminent death, its use is still growing, according to new research from Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. For most, learning UNIX commands is often a learn them as you need them approach.

While Windows remains the most popular form of many business IT environments, Linux provides the function. If you have a real desire to become good a UNIX command line user and have a general need like being a system admin, programmer, or database admin then 10, hours of practice is the rule of thumb to become a master.

If you have some interest and a very specific domain of use then a month should do it. Unix is dead. We all collectively killed it the moment we started hyperscaling and blitzscaling and more importantly moved to the cloud.

You see back in the 90s we still had to vertically scale our servers. Licensing is one of the things that has kept UNIX still very relevant.

So yes… UNIX is still very relevant. Six participants performed common commands using menu selection, icon toolbars, and keyboard shortcuts. The keyboard shortcuts were, as expected, the most efficient. Because it is so easy to track all of your activity on the command line, auditing and debugging is much easier.

And, as previously mentioned, many of the bash commands you'll learn work in Windows' native sell options like the command prompt anyway. That means that the command line skills you learn in these courses will be usable on virtually every computer you encounter including your personal machine, no matter what operating system you use. There is a misconception that using the command line requires you to know several hundred commands.

Still not convinced? When I am asked to explain the difference between Windows and Linux, I often use a toy analogy. Windows is like a Game Boy. You go to the store and buy one all shiny new in the box. You take it home, turn it on, and play with it.

Pretty graphics, cute sounds. After a while, though, you get tired of the game that came with it, so you go back to the store and buy another one. This cycle repeats over and over. The games are all sealed up in their cartridges.

You discover that your toy is limited to the games others have decided that you need. So, you start to play with it. You build one of the suggestions and then another.

After a while you discover that you have your own ideas of what to make. The Erector Set takes on the shape of your imagination. It does what you want. Your choice of toys is, of course, a personal thing, so which toy would you find more satisfying? Now you understand why it's valuable to learn the bash command line interface, how can you actually do it?

The easiest way is to learn right in your browser with Dataquest's guided, interactive command-line courses. You'll learn all the commands you'll need to work efficiently, writing real bash commands within a few minutes of signing up. You'll be writing your first commands in less than five minutes. Beginners, start here! The second course is focused on basic text processing in the shell, using commands like head , cat , cut and grep.