3. Basics of using terminal¶
The terminal (using Anaconda Prompt) is a text-based interface where you type commands to control your computer. batplot runs entirely from the terminal, so knowing a few basic navigation commands is all you need to get started. The sections below cover the essentials.
Seeing Your Current Location: pwd
If you ever lose track of where you are, type pwd (print working directory) and press Enter. The terminal prints the full path of your current folder.
pwd
Navigating Between Folders: cd
The cd command (change directory) moves you from one folder to another. Type cd followed by the path of the folder you want to enter, then press Enter. The prompt updates to confirm your new location. If the folder name contains spaces, enclose the entire path in quotation marks.
Enter a subfolder called Data
Go up one level to the parent folder
Jump directly to a folder using its full path
The shorthand .. always means the parent folder (one level up). Chaining it — for example cd ..\.. — moves up two levels. A full (absolute) path like the example above works regardless of where you currently are.
Listing Files in a Folder: ls / dir
To see the files and folders inside your current directory, use ls on macOS / Linux, or dir on Windows Anaconda Prompt. This is useful for confirming that your data files are present before running a batplot command.
macOS / Linux
Windows Anaconda Prompt
Tab Completion
After typing the first few characters of a name, press the Tab key and the terminal will complete the name automatically. If more than one match exists, pressing Tab again cycles through the options.
Recalling Previous Commands: Arrow Keys
Press the up arrow key to scroll back through previously entered commands. This is especially useful when you want to repeat a batplot command with a small change, press the up arrow, edit the line, and press Enter to run it again.
__Tip: __On Windows, the quickest way to navigate to a data folder is to open it in File Explorer, click the address bar to select the path, copy it, and then paste it into Anaconda Prompt after cd. On macOS, you can drag a folder from Finder directly into the Terminal window to insert its full path automatically.