LESSON 1 of 5//Core Navigation
Opening Terminal on Mac
The Terminal application is your gateway to the command line on macOS. It provides a text-based interface to interact with your operating system directly, bypassing the graphical user interface entirely.
Quick Launch
Press ⌘ + Space to open Spotlight, type "Terminal", and hit Enter. This is the fastest way to open Terminal on any Mac.
You can also find Terminal in Applications → Utilities → Terminal.app. Many developers prefer alternative terminal emulators like iTerm2 or Warp, but the built-in Terminal works perfectly for learning.
Your first commandzsh // interactive
# When Terminal opens, you'll see a prompt like this:
➜~echo "Hello, Command Line!"
Hello, Command Line!
# The 'echo' command prints text to the screen
➜~echo $SHELL
/bin/zsh
zsh vs bash
Modern macOS uses zsh (Z shell) as the default shell. Older Macs used bash. Both work similarly for basic commands, but zsh has more features like better tab completion and plugin support.
PRACTICE//Try the commands from this lesson
INTERACTIVE_TERMINAL//sandbox
Practice terminal — try the commands from this lesson!
Type 'help' for available commands. Tab completion not available in simulator.
Try: