MRC/Tutorials/The terminal

Introduction to the Terminal

Welcome to your first encounter with the terminal — a powerful tool that allows you to interact with your computer through text commands.

To open the terminal in Ubuntu, press:

Ctrl + Alt + T

Do you feel like a hacker already? This is your terminal window, and it's a gateway to controlling your system efficiently using text-based commands.

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Basic Commands

Let’s try a simple command. Type the following and press Enter:

ls

This will list all the folders and files in your current directory. You’ll likely see folders like:

Desktop  Documents  Downloads  Music  Pictures  Public  Templates  Videos

Let’s create a folder for your course files. Type:

mkdir mrc

mkdir stands for make directory. This command tells the computer to create a new folder named mrc.

To confirm the folder was created, use:

ls

To move into the new folder, use:

cd mrc

You’ll notice your terminal prompt changes from something like:

<username>@<computername>:~$

to:

<username>@<computername>:~/mrc$

This tells you that you're now inside the mrc directory. The ~ symbol represents your home directory, typically /home/<your-username>.

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Introducing Terminator

As you continue working, you’ll often need multiple terminal windows. Instead of opening several separate ones, you can use a tool called Terminator, which lets you manage multiple terminals in a single window.

Installing Terminator

You can install Terminator using the Ubuntu Software Center or with the following terminal command:

sudo apt-get install terminator

After installation, close your current terminal and open Terminator (search for it in your applications).

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Using Terminator

You’ll notice it looks similar to the regular terminal, but it has powerful extra features. Try the following:

• Press Ctrl + Shift + E → splits the terminal vertically
• Press it again → another vertical split!
• Now you have three terminals side-by-side

To move between them:

• Use your mouse, or
• Press Alt + <arrow key> (e.g., Alt + → to move right)

The active terminal is highlighted with a red border — that's the one you’ll be typing into.

Want more space?

• Select a terminal pane and press Ctrl + Shift + O → splits it horizontally

With Terminator, you can organize multiple terminals in one window — perfect for multitasking during development, testing, or coursework.

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Next section: Installation of EMC environment