Lab 0: Getting Started (Windows Setup)

Walkthrough: Organizing Your Files

In this section, you will learn how to manage files using terminal commands. Start by opening your terminal.

Make sure your prompt does not begin with >>>. If it begins with >>> you are still in a Python interpreter, and you need to exit. See above for how.

Directories

The first command you'll use is ls. Try typing it in your terminal:

ls

The ls command (which stands for list) lists all the files and folders in the current working directory. Recall that "directory" is another name for a folder (such as the Documents folder).

Since your working directory is the home directory right now, after you type ls you should see the contents of your home directory. In Powershell, you can tell directories apart from files because files have a length listed, while directories do not.

CLI vs GUI

Remember that you can access the files and directories (folders) on your computer in two different ways. You can either use the terminal (which is a command line interface, or CLI) or you can use File Explorer. File Explorer is an example of a graphical user interface (GUI). The techniques for navigating are different, but the files are the same. For example, here's how my folder for this course looks in my GUI:

And here's how the exact same folder looks in Powershell:

The contents of the folder can be found listed in the GUI, and underneath the yellow ls command in PowerShell

Changing Directories

To move into another directory, use the cd command (which stands for change directory). cd takes in a path as input and changes the working directory of your terminal to be directory identified by that path.

Let's try moving into your Desktop directory. First, make sure you're in your home directory by typing:

cd ~

~ is a special shorthand way of referring to the home directory. It is a path to the home directory.

Then, use the ls command to see if the Desktop directory is present.

If you see the Desktop directory, you can move into it with the following command:

cd Desktop

However, if the Desktop directory is not listed, it might be located elsewhere on your system. This can happen due to system configurations or custom setups. Find your Desktop in your file explorer and open it. Right click on the "address bar" at the top of the window and click "Copy Address".

The absolute path to your Desktop (e.g. C:\Users\adity\OneDrive\Desktop\) is now copied to your clipboard. Enter cd <absolute path to desktop> into the terminal to change directories into the Desktop.

Making New Directories

Once you're in the Desktop directory, the next command you'll use is mkdir, which stands for make a new directory. mkdir takes in a name as input and creates a new directory with that name. The new directory is stored in the current working directory.

Let's make a directory called cs61a in your Desktop directory to store all of the assignments for this class:

mkdir cs61a

A folder named cs61a will appear on your Desktop. You can verify this by using the ls command again or by checking your Desktop using File Explorer.

Now, let's create some more directories. First, make sure you are in the cs61a directory, which should have an absolute path like C:\Users\<USER>\Desktop\cs61a where <USER> is your actual username. Then, create three new folders called projects, lab, and hw. All of them should be inside your cs61a folder:

cd cs61a
mkdir projects
mkdir lab
mkdir hw

Now if you list the contents of the directory (using ls), you'll see three folders, projects, lab, and hw.

More Directory Changing

• cd .. (two dots). The .. means "the parent directory", or one directory above your current directory.

You do not have to keep your files on your Desktop if you prefer otherwise. Where you keep your files locally will not affect your grade. Do whatever is easiest and most convenient for you!

Downloading the Assignment

If you haven't already, download the zip archive, lab00.zip, which contains all the files that you'll need for this lab. On most computers, lab00.zip will probably be located in a directory called Downloads in your home directory.

You must expand the zip archive before you can work on the lab files. In File Explorer, you need to first click on the .zip file, then choose "Extract all". If you run into trouble, you can search online for how to unzip a file. Different operating systems and different browsers have different ways of unzipping.

You only need to unzip the files once.

Once you unzip lab00.zip, you'll have a new folder called lab00 which contains the following files (check it out by using cd to navigate into the folder and ls to list its contents):

• lab00.py: The template file you'll be adding your code to
• ok: A program used to test and submit assignments
• lab00.ok: A configuration file for ok

Moving Files

Move the lab files to the lab folder you created earlier. We recommend that you do this by dragging and dropping it into the correct folder in your graphic file explorer. If you want to use your terminal to move the folder, use the mv command as described in our UNIX Tutorial.

Summary

Here is a summary of the commands we just went over for your reference:

• ls: lists all files in the current directory
• cd <path to directory>: change into the specified directory
• mkdir <directory name>: makes a new directory with the given name

The exams for this course will not test you on how the file system works, what the definition of an absolute path is, or what commands you use in the terminal. However, these skills are essential for completing all of the assignments in this course. You can reference this page in the future.

Finally, you are ready to start editing the lab files! Don't worry if this seems complicated—it will get much easier over time. Just keep practicing! You can also take a look at our UNIX tutorial for a more detailed explanation of terminal commands.