Getting started with Linux and Bash

This tutorial will help those new to Linux to get started installing and updating packages using the Ubuntu distribution of Linux that is installed by default using WSL, as well as using some basic commands with the Bash command line.

Installing and Updating Software

You can install and update software programs directly from the command line using the preferred package manager for the distribution you are running.

In Ubuntu, for example, first update the list of software available by running sudo apt update. Then, you can directly get software by using the sudo apt-get install command followed by the name of the program you wish to install:

sudo apt-get install <app_name>

To update programs that have already been installed, you can run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Working with files and directories

To view the path of the directory you are currently in, use the pwd command:

pwd

To create a new directory, use the mkdir command followed by the name of the directory you want to create:

mkdir hello_world

To change directories, use the cd command followed by the name of the directory you want to navigate to:

cd hello_world

To see the contents within the directory you are currently in, type ls into the command line:

ls

By default, the ls command will print the name of all the files and directories only. To get additional information such as the last time a file was modified or file permissions, use the flag -l:

ls -l

You can create a new file via the touch command followed by the name of the file you would like to create:

touch hello_world.txt

You can edit files using any downloaded graphical text-editor or the VS Code Remote – WSL extension. You can learn more about getting started with VS Code here.

If you prefer to edit a file directly from the command-line, you’ll need to use a command-line editor such as vim, emacs, or nano. Many distributions come with one or more of these programs installed, but you can always install these programs by following the installation instructions outlined in the guide from above.

To edit your file with your preferred method of editing, simply run the program name followed by the name of the file you’d like to edit:

code hello_world.txt

notepad.exe hello_world.txt

To see the contents of a file in the command line, use the cat command followed by the file you’d like to read:

cat hello_world.txt

Using Pipes and Redirect Operators

A pipe | redirects the output from one command as input into another command. For example, lhscmd | rhscmd would direct the output from lhscmd to rhscmd. Pipes can be used in a variety of ways to quickly accomplish tasks through the command line. Below are just a few simple examples of how pipes can be used.

Imagine you want to quickly sort the contents of a file. Take the fruits.txt example below:

$ cat fruits.txt
Orange
Banana
Apple
Pear
Plum
Kiwi
Strawberry
Peach

You can quickly sort this list by using a pipe:

$ cat fruits.txt | sort
Apple
Banana
Kiwi
Orange
Peach
Pear
Plum
Strawberry

By default, the output of the cat command is sent to standard output; however, the | allows us to instead redirect the output as the input to another command, sort.

Another use case is searching. You can use grep which is a helpful command that searches input for a particular search string.

cat fruits.txt | grep P
Pear
Plum
Peach

You can also use redirect operators like > to pass the output to a file or stream. For example, if you wanted to create a new .txt file with the sorted contents of fruit.txt:

$ cat fruits.txt | sort > sorted_fruit.txt
$ cat sorted_fruit.txt
Apple
Banana
Kiwi
Orange
Peach
Pear
Plum
Strawberry

By default, the output of the sort command is sent to standard output; however, the > operator allows us to instead redirect the output into a new file named sorted_fruits.txt.

You can use pipes and redirect operators in many interesting ways to more efficiently complete tasks directly from the command line.

Recommended content

• Microsoft Learn: Introduction to Bash

• Command Line for Beginners

• Microsoft Learn: Get Started with WSL