Systematics Lab

If you are using a lab computer, these steps have been done for you. You do not need to perform them.

Where to type commands: How to open a new shell

The shell is a program that enables us to send commands to the computer and recive output. It is also referred to as the terminal or command line.

Some computers include a default Unix Shell program. The steps below describe some methods for identifying and opening a Unix Shell program if you already have one installed. There are also options for identifying and downloading a Unix Shell program, a Linux/UNIX emulator, or a program to access a UNIX server.

If none of the options below address your circumstances, try an online search for: UNIX shell [your computer model] [your operating system].

Linux

The default shell for Linux operating systems is usually Bash. On most versions of Linux, it is accessible by running the Terminal program, which can be found via the applications menu or the search bar.
If your machine is set up to use something other than bash, you can run it by opening a terminal and typing bash.

Mac OS

For a Mac computer, the default Unix Shell is Bash, and it is available via the Terminal Utilities program within your Applications folder.

To open Terminal, try one or both of the following:

Reference

How to Use Terminal on a Mac

Windows

Computers with Windows operating systems do not automatically have a Unix Shell program installed. In this lesson, we encourage you to use an emulator included in Git for Windows, which gives you access to both Bash shell commands and Git. Download and install Git for Windows here

Once installed, you can open a terminal by running the program Git Bash from the Windows start menu.

Other solutions are available for running Bash commands on Windows systems. There is now a Bash shell command-line tool available for Windows 10. Additionally, you can run Bash commands on a remote UNIX computer or server from your Windows machine. This can be done through a Secure Shell (SSH) client. One such client available for free for Windows computers is PuTTY. See the reference below for information on installing and using PuTTY, using the Windows 10 command-line tool, or installing and using a UNIX/Linux emulator.

Reference