Introduction

This workshop introduces the Unix shell (Bash) as a practical tool for working with files, automating repetitive tasks, and building reproducible workflows. You will learn how the shell relates to your operating system and applications, and how to efficiently navigate directories, inspect and manipulate files, chain commands with pipes and filters, iterate with loops, and write simple shell scripts. By the end, you’ll be comfortable using core command-line patterns to explore data, transform text, and compose small, simple pipelines.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, you will know how to:

• Understand what the shell is and when to use it.
• Move around folders and find your way to files.
• Make, copy, rename, and delete files and folders.
• Join simple commands together to get the result you want.
• Repeat actions on many files without retyping.
• Save steps in small scripts so you can reuse them.
• Search for files and for text inside files quickly.

Prerequisites

This lesson guides you through the basics of file systems and the shell. If you have stored files on a computer at all and recognize the word “file” and either “directory” or “folder” (two common words for the same thing), you’re ready for this lesson.

If you’re already comfortable manipulating files and directories, searching for files with grep and find, and writing simple loops and scripts, you probably want to skip this workshop.

Credits and Acknowledgement

These content were adapted from the following course materials:

• The Carpentries Incubator - The Unix Shell

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