6  Useful Terminal Commands

While some tools like Github now have some graphical user interfaces, terminal commands can be quite handy for cloning repositories, committing changes, pushing updates, and even installing new python modules. Something you almost always need to do in the terminal is to navigate directories. Here are some of the most typical commands and shortcuts to get you started.

General commands (Mac terminal or Git Bash)

cd <foldername> change directory; navigate into a new folder (assuming the folder exists in the directory).

cd .. To navigate out of the current directory

ls To list the content of the folder

pwd full path to current directory

See image below where I ran these commands:

Useful shortcuts

Use Tab key to autocomplete directory and file names

Use arrow-up to access the last command

In Macs use cmd + v to paste text into the terminal

In Windows machines use shift + insert to paste text into Git bash