10 ways to code with linux

Coding in Linux mostly happens in the Terminal or the Command Line. While it can be a scary looking place to begin with, the Terminal is an extremely powerful environment. Before you can start to code, it’s best to master the Terminal.

Taking Command

The command line is at the core of Linux and when you program with it, this is called scripting. These are self-contained programs designed to be run in the Terminal.

Step 1

The Terminal is where you begin your journey with Linux, through the command line and thus

any scripting from. In Linux Mint, it can be accessed by clicking on the Menu followed by the Terminal icon in the panel, or entering ‘Terminal’ into the search bar.

Step 2

The Terminal will give you access to the Linux Mint Shell, called BASH; this gives you access to the underlying operating system, which is why scripting is such a powerful language to learn and use. Everything in Mint, and Linux as a whole, including the desktop and GUI, is a module running from the command line.

Step 3

What you currently see in the Terminal is your login name followed by the name of the computer, as you named it when you first installed the OS on to the computer. The line then ends with the current folder name; at first this is just a tilde (~), which means your Home folder.

Step 4

he flashing cursor at the very end of the line is where your text-based commands will be entered. You can begin to experiment with a simple command, Print Working Directory (pwd), which will output to the screen the current folder you’re in. Type: pwd and press Enter.

Step 5

All the commands you enter will work in the same manner. You enter the command, include any

parameters to extend the use of the command and press Enter to execute the command line you’ve entered. Now type: uname -a and press Enter. This will display information regarding Linux Mint. In scripting, you can use all the Linux command-line commands within your own scripts.

Step 6

The list of available Linux commands is vast, with some simply returning the current working directory, while others are capable of deleting the entire system in an instant. Getting to know the commands is part of learning how to script. By using the wrong command, you could end up wiping your computer. Type command to view the available commands.

Here Be Dragons! 

There’s an urban myth on the Internet that an employee at Disney Pixar nearly ruined the animated movie Toy Story by inadvertently entering the wrong Linux command and deleting the entire system the film was stored on.

Step 1

Having access to the Terminal means you’re bypassing the GUI desktop method of working with the system. The Terminal is a far more powerful environment than the desktop, which has several safeguards in place in case you accidentally delete all your work, such as Rubbish Bin to recover deleted files.

Step 2

However, the Terminal doesn’t offer that luxury. If you were to access a folder with files within via the Terminal and then enter the command: rm *.*, all the files in that folder would be instantly deleted. They won’t appear in the Rubbish Bin either, they’re gone for good.

Step 3

Therefore it’s always a good idea to work in the Terminal using a two-pronged approach. First, use the desktop to make regular backups of the folders you’re working in when in the Terminal. This way, should anything go wrong, there’s a quick and handy backup waiting for you.

Step 4

Second, research before blindly entering a command you’ve seen on the Internet. If you see the

command: sudo dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/sda and use it in a script, you’ll soon come to regret the action as the command will wipe the entire hard drive and fill it with random data. Take a moment to Google the command and see what it does.

Share this post