Many new developers are uncomfortable in the Terminal. But it can be your friend! Learn a few high-value Terminal tricks here, useful on both MacOS and Linux systems

1. Useful Terminal Tricks
Places to start if you're new to development

2. Basic Terminal Tools
— Tab completion
— Up arrow for history
— Option-click (if not in iTerm)
— Multiple tabs
— Customize the look in Preferences

3. Common Commands
— ls and ls -lAhG $LS_COLOR
— pwd
— cd [directory]
— cd = home
— cd ..
— ctrl-L and clear
— open

4. Customizing Your Terminal
— .bash_aliases
— .bashrc
— (.gitignore, .vimrc, etc)

5. .bash_aliases
If you do it again and again, save shortcuts you can
access from anywhere

6. Shell commands
alias ls='ls -lAhG $LS_COLOR'
alias wgets='wget -S --spider' #Displays headers only
Places you navigate to
alias Codesmith='cd /Volumes/Juarez/Users/wade/Code/Codesmith'
Apps you use
alias chrome='open -a "Google Chrome.app"'

7. .bashrc
Behaviors go here
# Make sublime text my editor
export EDITOR='subl -n -w'
# Tell the terminal where to guess for tab completion
export CDPATH=.:~:~/Documents:~/Documents/Code:~/Desktop
# Use other scripts in the prompt
source ~/dotfiles/git-prompt.sh

8. The arcane secrets of changing your prompt
export PS1="n[033[38;5;240m]u@[033[0m][033[$MYMACHINECOLOR]
$MYMACHINENAME[033[0m] [033[38;5;240m]w [033[0m][033[38;5;186m]
$(__git_ps1)[033[0m] [033[38;5;240m]$[033[0m]"
— Insert your current directory
— Use color to indicate status or location
— Show your privelege level
— Show git info
Learn more at Stack Exchange

9. Have some fun!
— fortune
— sl
— cowsay (try cowsay -f ghostbusters)
— fortune | cowsay

10. Where can you use the Terminal?
— Mac
— Common servers, running Linux (CentOS, Debian,
etc.)
— Windows, through Cygwin

11. Learn Next
— curl
— wget
— touch
— cat
— tail

12. Customize your terminal
— Search Github
— Try Stack Exchange
— Get a new Terminal theme
— Install cool *nix tools with Homebrew

13. That's it!
What are your favorite terminal tricks?

14. Bonus: my .bash_aliases and .bashrc