Glosarium
Contents

Engineering Craft › Developer Tooling

Terminal / Command Line

Controlling your computer and tools through text commands.

Backend Engineer · JuniorFrontend Engineer · JuniorData Engineer · Junior

Also known as: command line, CLI, console, command prompt

The terminal (also called the command line or console) is a text window where you control your computer and tools by typing commands, instead of clicking. Inside it runs a shell that interprets what you type.

ana@laptop:~/project$ ls
README.md  src  tests
ana@laptop:~/project$ git status

Why developers use it

  • It’s how many tools work: Git, package managers, build tools, containers, cloud CLIs, SSH.
  • Scriptable. Anything you type can be saved in a script and repeated (shell scripting).
  • Fast once you know the commands, and combinable (pipes).
  • Works everywhere, including remote servers with no desktop (SSH).
  • Reproducible: instructions in docs can be copy-pasted.

Names that get mixed up

TermMeaning
Terminal (emulator)the window or app: Terminal.app, Windows Terminal, iTerm, the VS Code panel
Shellthe program inside that interprets commands: bash, zsh (shell)
CLIa program you use through commands, such as git or docker
Consolean older word, often a synonym for terminal

Getting comfortable

  • Learn the basics: moving around, listing, copying, searching (basic shell commands).
  • Use Tab completion and the up arrow / Ctrl+R history.
  • Read what a command does before pasting it, especially anything with sudo or rm.
  • Use --help and man when unsure (getting help).
  • Know how to stop things: Ctrl+C interrupts a running command.
  • On Windows, WSL gives a Linux shell, and PowerShell is the native one.

You don’t need to memorize hundreds of commands. A couple dozen, plus the habit of looking things up, covers most days.