Absolute BEGINNER Guide to the Mac OS Terminal

In this video you'll get an absolute beginner introduction to the Mac OS terminal. By the end of the video you should feel comfortable browsing files and folders in your computer via the terminal. We'll also cover using the terminal to create, edit and delete files and folders. Along the way, you'll get pro tips that will help increase your terminal game quickly.
Skills
✅ 0:30 - Where is the Terminal app?
✅ 0:45 - What does the $ mean in the Terminal?
✅ 1:25 - How to show files and folders in the Terminal
✅ 2:50 - How to change directories in the Terminal
✅ 4:23 - What does ".." and "." mean in the Terminal?
✅ 5:19 - How to clear the Terminal screen
✅ 6:00 - What does "~" mean in the Terminal?
✅ 6:50 - How to create files in the Terminal
✅ 7:13 - How to autocomplete file names in the Terminal
✅ 8:26 - How edit text and HTML files in the Terminal
✅ 10:12 - How to scroll through previous commands in the Terminal
✅ 11:26 - How to delete files in the Terminal
✅ 11:51 - How to create folders/directories in the Terminal
✅ 15:18 - How to delete folders/directories in the Terminal
Terminal Commands
🕹 1:25 - pwd - print working directory, show the current folder/directory
🕹 1:25 - ls - show the files and folders/directories in the current folder/directory
🕹 2:50 - cd - change directories
🕹 5:19 - clear - clear the terminal screen
🕹 6:50 - touch - create a file in the terminal
🕹 8:26 - nano - simple terminal-based text editor
🕹 10:12 - history - show previous commands
🕹 11:26 - rm - remove (delete) files in the terminal
🕹 11:51 - mkdir - create folder/directory in the terminal
🕹 15:18 - rm -r - remove (delete) folders/directories in the terminal
About
I'm Percy Grunwald from TopTechSkills.com here to help you get to the next level in programming, web development, DevOps and more! I hope you found this video useful, please leave a comment if there's anything I can help you with.

[@hurbig]

Where would all the computer science students that didn't know a lot about the practical stuff prior to studying computer science be without people like you? Seriously, CS is such a hard field because there is tons of stuff University will not teach you but people expect you to know. Thank you very much for this introduction to the terminal!

[@toptechskills]

Thank you for the kind comment Herr Hurbig, I'm so glad the video was useful for you.

[@elligue]

An old dilemma, or if it is an dilemma at all? I remember when a friend was looking to hire a coupple of people to their computer company some 20 years ago. After a lot of interviews of applicants from university as well as pure home hackers the only ones qualified for the task were the home hackers without any formal education in the matter. Titles are NOT a guarantee for competence. I usually say that the world have never been ruled by so many stupid people with fine titles as today, not impliing that everyone with a fine title is stupid.

[@GiggleYohoo]

You don't have to worry much because I am a computer engg graduate and ended up detailing cars for years.Nowadays, I would say that whom you know is better than what you know. I am not that dumb but I can pretend. Haha

[@nickcarvajal]

I made a career off videos like these

[@bibeksingh7773]

Thank you for uploading this video, have been looking for something like this since a long time, your way of explaining things makes it extremely easy for the viewers to understand.

[@toptechskills]

Hi Bibek Singh, thank you for taking the time to leave a kind comment like this. I'm very glad the video was valuable for you.

[@royakha1484]

I agree with you , its just amazing 🙏❤️

[@jdillon8360]

Thanks for making this video. There are some other videos on youtube about terminal but the first thing they do is tell you to install some extra software before you even start using terminal. I like that you start off just doing basic commands that we can use without installing anything extra.

[@CrazyPaine]

I didn't know anything about MacOS terminals at all and you broke it down for me so simply. Thank you so much. I screamed when I saw you could edit text on the terminal. I was shocked.

[@saniyairfan6456]

I am a literature student working in the area of Digital Humanities. We have a test tomorrow and I thought I was gonna fail because I did not know even a bit about Command Line. This video has helped me a lot in just 17 mins! Think I will do well in test tomorrow 😁 Thank you making me feel confident about knowing computers!

[@brickbuilt8312]

I’m glad I found your channel. I can’t say I’ve found a use for terminal yet but I can say I now understand what it does. I thank you, sir.

[@zuberkariye2299]

JESUS CHRIST I am going for IT security and hacking, I did one IT internship while ago and I wish I knew this before my internship and this is why I’m learning cuz I’m going in the tech industry like coding, IT and more

[@theknightikins9397]

@@zuberkariye2299 what do you use it for? I’ve only ever used it to open files and such. I don’t even do that too often as I don’t like the UI as much as say the finder or text editor. I assume you can use the terminal to access the system and do some cool stuff but I’m just curious what you do in it.

[@zuberkariye2299]

@@theknightikins9397 you can install more tools that don’t have GUI support besides cli(command line based). I will suggest you learn Linux such as Ubuntu and you will like the terminal

[@zuberkariye2299]

@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ sudo same I am here trying to create a zip file with a password and then crack it

[@zuberkariye2299]

@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ sudo I seen you on SecurityFWD channel yesterday

[@deliavisbal6485]

This video is awesome Percy. I was very frustrated with Terminal as I am just getting familiar and after watching this video I feel much better. it was eye opening. Thank you very much!

[@cearagannon2425]

I just started teaching myself c and this is soooo helpful bc pretty much all the beginner videos don’t cover this and I’ve literally spent hours trying to figure this out from scratch

[@samanthafeinen3216]

Thank you so much for this video! I just started The Odin Project, and I was having a really hard time understanding this concept, and I feel like I totally understand this now!! Plus I'm teaching this to myself at 1:30 in the morning!

[@toptechskills]

Very glad the video was helpful. Good on you for starting the Odin Project, I had not heard of that before, but it looks really well put together. Good luck.

[@googlenick4351]

it is truly a good tutorial that I had ever found, quite easy to learn and useful during working, appreciate it! hope to learn more from you

[@toptechskills]

Thanks for your kind comment, glad the video was useful 🙏

[@melissawebster1040]

This is the best straight-to-the-point bash beginner tutorial that I've found, thanks so much!

[@brianrowland9993]

Excellent - clear and concise explanation to overcome Terminal anxiety! I hope you have more presentations to build on the basics! Subscribed!

[@gdub-rawk]

Clear, concise, and a great quick refresher after not using terminal for a few years. Thanks!

[@maxp6066]

I’ve had a Mac for years and all this time I’ve been using the GUI to navigate and only recently been exposed to using the terminal, your tutorial is so easy to follow and understand. Thank you.

[@no_name4796]

Honestly the terminal is the only reason mac is better then windows. Yes, i use linux btw (not arch btw, but hey i write code in neovim btw, so that's already some good bragging rights there ;-)

[@MyHealth100]

I had zero knowledge of the terminal, but now I am confident to use it in my project. Thank you very much, God bless you!!

[@javajack-1]

This is so good. I didn't know anything about terminal but need to learn for an application I need to run that only works under terminal. Other tutorials I looked at left out so many things that you included. There is an assumption by people running terminal that you know what that $ sign means. I didn't, how to look inside a directory and how to make it show in finder. Thanks for this

[@johnstultz]

Wow. I just started taking a Python Bootcamp an hour ago, and it mentioned the Terminal. I came here and was amazed by how fast you can learn a new skill that you never knew existed. Great video Percy. I am a new fan of yours now.

[@toptechskills]

Thank you very much for your comment John, I'm really happy this was helpful, good luck in your bootcamp

[@dr_corrupt1014]

@@toptechskills Your video is really helpful

[@donteejay242]

I also started learning python some days ago and they mentioned command prompt, I had to Google for mac and found out its terminal and I found myself on this channel

[@hemangicharel5987]

This is really really helpful for me as a beginner .It cleared lot of my doubts . Thank u so much for making this video.

[@toptechskills]

I'm very glad it was helpful, thank you very much for your comment 🙏

[@casitalynch6921]

OMG I am so relieved watching this video. Thank you!!!

[@mickeyatty]

Great video, helped me figure out my mistakes moving from PC to Mac. Thanks!

[@21stcenturyafropolitan]

Bro, this is beautiful. I have zero computer skills but you made it easy to grasp. Thoroughly enjoyed this lesson.

[@toptechskills]

Thanks so much for your comment, I'm really happy it was easy for you grasp. Good luck! 🙏

[@kumoitojp]

I've been looking for a tutorial like this for years! Perfect!

[@toptechskills]

Hi Kumoito jp, so glad you liked the video, thank you for your comment 🙏

[@amvdevil4489]

Percy could you please do more videos just watch this and love it and would love to see even more advanced lessons you give amazing explanation would love to see more of your videos. I’ll be start my IT school in month and wanted get familiar with terminal and Vim and other stuff.

[@otasofovwe1939]

Incredible, simply incredible. You're a brilliant teacher and this video has been super helpful. Thanks a lot.

[@toptechskills]

This comment really made my day, thank you so much for the compliment and I'm very happy the video has been helpful for you 🙏

[@enrgys_world]

This tutorial has made me feel like a mac wizard, thank you so much

[@toptechskills]

You're very welcome, so glad it was helpful, thank you for your comment

[@sk4tec]

Great video as a longtime Windows dev and now Mac dev. There were a lot of useful tips!

[@donteejay242]

Thank you for this video. I really do appreciate it. I have zero knowledge about computers and this video has been really helpful

[@profiAcc]

wow, this was so amazing, it surely helped me understand how Terminal works

[@toptechskills]

Glad you liked it! 🙏

[@hadestech8147]

Great class, simple nicely paced instructions with great visuals.

[@toptechskills]

Thank you very much, appreciate the comment 🙏

[@tdematos]

I've been picking up software development on my own, and I am currently learning through the "Odin project" I am currently working on learning on navigating through the terminal and learning commands, and oh boy! Once I saw this video everything clicked and made sense! Thank you!

[@heminthehat]

Amazing job demystifying the dreaded terminal! Great tutorial. Easy to follow!

[@chriskellervocalstudio]

been working with Terminal for a couple days and getting little accomplished. I understood everything in this 17 minute video and executed everything perfectly. Thank you!

[@toptechskills]

Thanks for the comment Chris, very happy the video was helpful.

[@im.sunshine]

So, I'm a health professional who has been curious how computers actually work and one of my IT friend referred your video. I must say, I practiced step by step along you & I practiced all the tasks you taught here. Thank you for making it so easy mate! :))

[@toptechskills]

Thank you for the kind comment Remy, hope the video helped you on your journey to understanding computers!

[@im.rakesh0827]

Seriously , it's a great tutorial

[@lilliesan]

You are such a life saver, the command sheetchart didnt make sense to me. Thank you

[@jonathanguzman8584]

Thank you for the information Percy, greatly appreciated

[@thegoodkush]

I wanted to learn python but figured I should figure out how to use my mac terminal first, this really helped me out! Thanks a lot man!!

[@jeshuruncarlos6649]

Same Here....

[@toptechskills]

Thank you both, I'm very glad it was helpful, thanks for the comments

[@isaacsnowcarini4808]

This was really well done! would be amazing to see a guide to installing software (pip, python etc) and talk about bash and shell

[@toptechskills]

Thanks for your kind words, Snow. Hope to get back into making content like this in future.

[@Kidester]

Thank you so much for this, I was so lost before and you explained everything perfectly.

[@davediamond]

Extremely helpful and incredibly clear. Thank you!

[@DavidKizivat1]

There actually is a way to "go back" using cd command that is completely equivalent to what the "back" button does in Finder (which is that actually goes to previous location you've been to, not necessarily to the parent directory). It's cd - (minus). Just leaving it here cause I found it useful from time to time.

[@toptechskills]

Very nice, I had forgotten about that, thanks for sharing.

[@matisscukurs5535]

oh nice, It also outputs the working directory. Appreciated.

[@taurus20077]

For bash shell (as your default shell), + l would clear the screen too. Also, it would probably be better to run "ls -la" so you would know which ones are directories and which ones are files so you don't accidentally try to change directory with a file and get an error message!

[@vinicyusfortes5129]

Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge!

[@dchung3088]

This is absolute gold! Liked and subscribed. Please make a part 2 to this!

[@autopilot1569]

I've never learnt to use the terminal so efficiently in such a short time :D. These commands are all I needed

[@toptechskills]

Very glad to hear about your terminal progress, thanks for your comment 🙏

[@a.d.c.3553]

And this is how you teach a class. Thanks!

[@toptechskills]

Appreciate the kind comment, thank you.

[@luckytraderchow]

amazing clear video! thank you! will follow your videos for further learning.

[@Sami67995]

Thank you it was amazing I am a Programmer and sometimes needed to refresh my knowledge on terminal cmd

[@rosemaryakharume4639]

3 years later and this is still so helpful!! Do you have any videos on how to compile using Terminal?

[@MSH3423]

Hi there, this tutorial was quite easy, since I was used to MS-Dos commands, but what is the benefit of using shell commands compare to GUI input besides the speed? Can I write a function that will trigger certain bash commands together to interact with PC? What would be a good example of that if it is possible? I have a hard time learning stuff if I do not know the practical usage for it.

[@toptechskills]

Hi Qk9CWU5ib3x, I would say that for most people who are not intending to work in IT, the advantage of being familiar with the terminal is mainly that there are certain operations even on a Mac that you cannot do in a GUI. Being comfortable with the terminal will help you in these situations since you'll already have some level of understanding of what's going on, or where to run the command. For people that would like to learn how to program, or want to do system administration, these skills are essential since a lot of the tools you'll be using do not have a GUI at all, and in a lot of ways dealing with these tools via command line interface (CLI) is much simpler and faster. Your question hits on another huge benefit of command line knowledge: scripting and automation. You can certainly write scripts and functions for interacting with the PC, check out some articles on "bash scripting" and "bash functions" (I recommend a book called "How Linux Works"). One example of a useful script might be one to automatically delete files in your downloads directory that are over 30 days old. Hope that's useful, thanks for your comment.

[@Dani-hh3qd]

@@toptechskills I'm an absolute beginner in programming and only have been using GUI's so far. Can you recommend me any books to get a better understanding of what's happening under the hood, or any books in general for an IT student that are a must read? Thanks in advance!

[@ecp6490]

New Year's Eve won't stop the real professionals.

[@toptechskills]

Haha, well spotted ECP 😂

[@adalbertogarcianeiszer2502]

Really helpful, excellent explanation. Just what I was looking for, thanks so much !!!

[@adorablegodzilla5628]

Very helpful. I've used these commands before, but didn't know what they meant, just saw it in a guide (and probably why I forgot them).

[@neverbenbetter8225]

When you say -r is the way to delete folders, I feel like that implies there are different types of deletion commands (aside from -r) what are they and WHY are they different?

[@toptechskills]

Running the command `man rm` will show the manual entry for the `rm` command and can show the explanation of the different options the command accepts (such as `-r`). Basically the `-r` or `-R` option tells `rm` to delete the entire file hierarchy under the file/directory you are trying to remove recursively. If you don't pass this argument, `rm` will not attempt to delete any files inside the directory you are trying to remove and would fail unless the directory is empty. The `rmdir` command is essentially equivalent to `rm -r`. Hope this helps, thank you for the comment 🙏

[@respawnicon]

@@toptechskills ok i just saw this nvm

[@Blacktop_Battle]

MAKE SURE TO PUT A SPACE BETWEEN THE CD AND THE DOTS!

[@MB-ju6yv]

Why?

[@KevinJohnMulligan]

@@MB-ju6yv nothing bad will happen, but it won't work and that will be confusing.

[@MB-ju6yv]

@@KevinJohnMulligan ok thanks

[@anncothromoir1018]

Short, sweet and to the point. Many thanks - a breath of fresh air in this god-awful era of over-statement!

[@_ifly]

this is the most amazing tutorial I have come across. that's why they say if you can't explain it simple enough you don't understand it well enough.

[@toptechskills]

Thank you very much Jonah

[@imParvez7]

Crystal & Clear. Thanks man ❤️

[@hg-qz9ft]

My bootcamp prep course suggested this video to learn basics. Clear and concise. Cheers m8

[@toptechskills]

Hi S M, I'm very happy the video was helpful and I'm grateful your bootcamp prep course suggested the video. Out of interest, which bootcamp/prep course are you taking?

[@giaantran3810]

Thank you for putting your time on this video

[@marinapizarro-krkljus2849]

I can't express how helpful this video is, THANK YOU so much

[@harrylongofficial6248]

This is one of the first videos in a while where I have easily understood the instructor in the video, thank you so much!

[@toptechskills]

Thank you very much for the kind words Harry, I'm pleased it was easy to understand

[@sarthakmaheshwari6397]

all confusion sorted out .thank you very much for this wonderful beginners tutorial on terminal!

[@toptechskills]

You're welcome, thank you for your comment!

[@grane1850]

thank you so much for this video! I did every part easily and the instructions were very clear. I'm really happy to find your channel.

[@toptechskills]

Thank you for the feedback Grane, very pleased you found the video easy to follow

[@timmytesla9655]

I needed to learn this quickly. Your video has really helped. Thank you.

[@user-cf9iu6tg5c]

Thank you, your video was incredibly helpful!

[@8Eighty8Eight]

YOUR VERBAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS ARE EXCELLENT. I've watched many a how-to video. Most all of them could learn from you. Thanks for a great....no make that GREAT video.

[@toptechskills]

Thank you so much for the positive feedback -- I'm really pleased you feel that way. I put a lot of effort into trying to communicate things clearly for all viewers, so this sort of feedback really makes my day 🙏

[@Fremulshmat]

This is a brilliant tutorial. Clear and concise explanations. Thanks for posting

[@ALPERTONIC1971]

Thanks for the very helpful basics for the command line - When I try to use the finder with drag and drop to copy, deleter and paste I am always saying who wrote this useless software ! Now I have a great alternative. Looking forward to some more commands and tips. Thanks again.

[@andrewkovalenko2313]

Good straightforward explanation of commands, thx!

[@milicailic4476]

Many thanks for this video! It helped me a lot.

[@frwiss]

Great intro to the terminal. Thank you! Subscribed.

[@rajatkumar706]

thanks for the video , you made it very easy to understand

[@keithlamontdavis8047]

That was extremely helpful. Thank you!

[@anlcandurak938]

Hey Percy, great video! Smooth and not boring at all. I have knowledge of these commands right now! Thank you!

[@toptechskills]

Thank you for your comment Anılcan Durak, good luck with Ansible!

[@nickjames2651]

So clear and understandable thank you!!!!

[@sergiusgoins6751]

This video just made EVERYTHING im doing sooo much easier dude Thank you

[@RhythmicEye]

Excellent tutorial Percy. Great communication skills. I feel smarter and less anxious now when looking at the empty Terminal window. Thanks very much!

[@toptechskills]

I'm really happy to hear that, thank you very much for your comment

[@davidlane777]

Very well done. This video gave me confidence on day 2 of my journey through the Terminal. You made these basics easy to understand and perform. THANK YOU

[@toptechskills]

Hi David, I'm so pleased to hear this video helped you on your Terminal journey, best of luck with it. Thank you for your kind comment 🙏

[@gr0124]

Do you know why I can not post anything here

[@davidlane777]

@@gr0124 like the post you just made or something different?

[@annegarvey3375]

extremely helpful, thank you!

[@realrosanaandre]

Thank you so much, excellent video!

[@jamesmann7411]

Very helpful thank you Percy, I’m planning to keep learning cmd en route to launching my first vps. It all started here!

[@toptechskills]

Best of luck, James. Glad the video was helpful, thank you for your comment.

[@melmartin4152]

Thank you, best example of terminal I've ever seen

[@toptechskills]

Thank you, Mel 🙏

[@dconvention8568]

I'm texting you from the future - January, 2022. You are the CHAMP, godsend! Calm voice with clear, concise instructions!!! Prior to your video, I was close to figuring things out but, no dice. I felt like Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson trying to start the iMac in Zoolander. Percy, you da' man, man!!

[@toptechskills]

Thanks so much for your comment, I'm really happy to hear that it helped and for the positivity. Good luck in the Terminal!

[@nefariousnilbog]

Thanks you so much for your help. I'm 39, and late to the party in trying to learn command line in both Mac and Windows :D Your video was of great use.

[@toptechskills]

Happy it was helpful, you're never late to the party with these skills I'd say!

[@verafilyas]

this is the best instruction! thank you! 🙏

[@stefanrakocevic8698]

That was amazing! Thanks so much!

[@paulksacco]

Thank you. I am a very old man to whom Terminal was a scary place. Now I see that it's like my life in DOS and pre-DOS! Baby Steps!

[@user-vx4gg2vv3q]

Thank you so much for this... Thank you.

[@hateezkhan4363]

Thanks, it was such an amazing video for a new Mac user like me. I would really love if you could do a little more advanced type Terminal video.

[@TripleIProductions]

This was very easy and comprehensive. Thank you!

[@taimourjavaid6559]

thank you. learned a lot.

[@yashpreet2707]

this was great ! thanks for this wonderful tutorial :) 😀

[@joelkgomo9245]

Excellent tutorials, I am 1 step better than yesterday

[@trnrvl]

Cool video for beginners . Thank you so much !

[@ofeyofey]

history and up and down arrows are useful but to go to a certain command use the exclamation mark like this '!100' to run the 100th command. also type 'top' to show all current running processes and 'q' to get out of it. '-rf' flags are useful when removing for recursion and force.The manual pages can be viewed by just putting a command followed by man and 'apropos' is useful to if you have a vague idea of a command. Great tutorial thanks.

[@salmush1982]

Thank You very much for this tutorial video. Im a beginner to this top and this video gave me full understanding and ability to work through Terminal. 🙏🙏

[@toptechskills]

I'm so pleased it was useful for you, thank you so much for your comment. Good luck! 🙏

[@Grant82gc]

Yep this very much got me on track. Explained eloquently!

[@toptechskills]

Thank you for your comment 🙏

[@tree70373]

It's really a nice tutorial! Thanks a lot!

[@jorgebowles9318]

Thank you so much ❤

[@hotfleshgramsay4658]

For sure I learnt a lot from this video thanks so much sir