Lab 00: Command Line Navigation and File Operations

Objective

Navigate the file system, create a workspace directory, and practice creating, copying, renaming, and deleting files.

Prerequisites

• A terminal application:
  • macOS: Terminal.app (pre-installed in Applications > Utilities)
  • Windows: Git Bash (bundled with Git for Windows)
  • Linux: Terminal (pre-installed)
• No prior modules required

Duration

10 to 12 minutes

Instructions

Step 1: Set Up Your Workspace (~5 min)

In this step you open a terminal and create a working directory for the lab.

Open your terminal:

• macOS: Open Finder, go to Applications > Utilities, and open Terminal. You can also press Cmd + Space, type Terminal, and press Enter.
• Windows: Open the Start menu, type Git Bash, and open it. If you do not see Git Bash, install Git from git-scm.com first.
• Linux: Open your distribution's terminal application. On Ubuntu, press Ctrl + Alt + T.

Once your terminal is open, run the following commands one at a time.

Print your current directory:

pwd

Expected output (your path will differ):

/Users/student

List the files in your current directory:

ls

Expected output (your files will differ):

Desktop    Documents    Downloads    Music    Pictures

Create a new directory for this lab:

mkdir it-fundamentals-lab

This command produces no output. That is normal.

Change into the new directory:

cd it-fundamentals-lab

This command produces no output. That is normal.

Confirm you are in the new directory:

pwd

Expected output (your path will differ):

/Users/student/it-fundamentals-lab

You now have a dedicated workspace for the rest of this lab.

Step 2: Create and Manage Files (~5-7 min)

In this step you create, view, copy, rename, and delete files using command-line commands.

Create a file with text content:

echo "Hello from the command line" > hello.txt

This command creates a file called hello.txt and writes the text into it. It produces no output.

View the contents of the file:

cat hello.txt

Expected output:

Hello from the command line

Create an empty file:

touch notes.txt

This command produces no output. It creates an empty file called notes.txt.

List the files in the directory:

ls

Expected output:

hello.txt    notes.txt

Add text to the notes file:

echo "This is my first note" > notes.txt

This command produces no output.

View the contents of the notes file:

cat notes.txt

Expected output:

This is my first note

Copy a file:

cp hello.txt hello-backup.txt

This command produces no output. It creates a copy of hello.txt named hello-backup.txt.

List the files to confirm the copy:

ls

Expected output:

hello-backup.txt    hello.txt    notes.txt

Rename a file:

mv notes.txt my-notes.txt

This command produces no output. It renames notes.txt to my-notes.txt.

List the files to confirm the rename:

ls

Expected output:

hello-backup.txt    hello.txt    my-notes.txt

Delete a file:

rm hello-backup.txt

This command produces no output. It permanently deletes hello-backup.txt.

⚠️Warning: The rm command deletes files permanently. There is no recycle bin or undo. Always double-check the filename before pressing Enter.

List the files to confirm the deletion:

ls

Expected output:

hello.txt    my-notes.txt

You now know how to create, view, copy, rename, and delete files from the command line.

Validation

Confirm the following before moving on:

• You can open a terminal and run pwd to see your current directory
• The it-fundamentals-lab/ directory exists with hello.txt and my-notes.txt
• Running cat hello.txt displays "Hello from the command line"
• Running cat my-notes.txt displays "This is my first note"

Cleanup

Remove the lab directory when you are finished:

macOS/Linux:

cd ~
rm -r it-fundamentals-lab

Windows (Git Bash):

cd ~
rm -r it-fundamentals-lab

No cloud resources were created during this lab. No further cleanup is needed.

Challenge (Optional)

1. Create a directory called practice/ inside a new it-fundamentals-lab/ directory, then create three files inside it using a single touch command:

   mkdir -p it-fundamentals-lab/practice
   touch it-fundamentals-lab/practice/file1.txt it-fundamentals-lab/practice/file2.txt it-fundamentals-lab/practice/file3.txt
   

2. Use ls -la to view the files with details (permissions, size, modification date). Compare the output to a plain ls.

3. Use grep to search for a word inside a file:

   echo "The cloud is powerful" > it-fundamentals-lab/practice/file1.txt
   grep "cloud" it-fundamentals-lab/practice/file1.txt
   

AWS Bootcamp: From Novice to Architect Author: Samuel Ogunti License: CC BY-NC 4.0