Terminal Quest

Tracks

1. 01🐚What Is a Shell? Foundations

   0/10 lessons

   Terminal basics, shell history, PATH, man pages, shortcuts

   Separate the terminal from the shell, then learn how commands are selected and how to read the local contract.

   Lesson list (10)

   • 01
     Terminal vs Shell vs Console~15 min · terminal, shell, console, iterm2, warp
   • 02
     A Brief History: sh → bash → zsh → fish~15 min · history, sh, bash, zsh, fish, posix
   • 03
     Why zsh Is the macOS Default~15 min · zsh, macOS, default-shell, license
   • 04
     Anatomy of the Prompt~15 min · prompt, ps1, powerlevel10k, starship
   • 05
     Commands, Arguments, Flags~15 min · command, argument, flag, getopt
   • 06
     PATH: How the Shell Finds Executables~15 min · path, executable, type, which, whence
   • 07
     Man Pages~15 min · man, documentation, less, info
   • 08
     Getting Help: --help, tldr, cheat.sh~15 min · help, tldr, cheat, documentation
   • 09
     Keyboard Shortcuts: Readline & Zsh~15 min · readline, shortcuts, emacs-keys, vi-mode
   • 10
     Exit Codes and $?~15 min · exit-code, status, errors, shell

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

2. 02📁Navigating the Filesystem

   0/12 lessons

   Directories, paths, permissions, find, tree

   Understand filesystem structure, path resolution, permissions, and link boundaries before changing data.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     The Filesystem Tree~15 min · filesystem, fhs, macos, tree
   • 02
     pwd, cd, ls — The Navigation Trinity~12 min · pwd, cd, ls, navigation
   • 03
     ls Power Flags~12 min · ls, flags, macos
   • 04
     Absolute vs Relative Paths~10 min · paths, absolute, relative
   • 05
     Home, Current, Parent — ~ . ..~10 min · tilde, shortcuts, navigation
   • 06
     Hidden Files and Dotfiles~10 min · dotfiles, hidden, config
   • 07
     mkdir, rmdir, rm — Creating and Removing~12 min · mkdir, rmdir, rm, trash
   • 08
     cp, mv — Copying and Moving~12 min · cp, mv, rsync
   • 09
     Symbolic and Hard Links~13 min · symlink, hard-link, ln
   • 10
     find — Searching the Filesystem~15 min · find, search, exec
   • 11
     tree — Visualizing Directories~8 min · tree, visualization
   • 12
     File Permissions: rwx, chmod, chown~15 min · chmod, chown, permissions, umask

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

3. 03🔧Input, Output and Pipes

   0/10 lessons

   Streams, redirection, pipes, sort, uniq, xargs, tee

   Treat stdin, stdout, stderr, and pipes as data contracts rather than punctuation tricks.

   Lesson list (10)

   • 01
     Standard Streams~12 min · stdin, stdout, stderr, fd
   • 02
     Output Redirection: > and >>~10 min · redirect, stdout, append
   • 03
     Stderr Redirection: 2>, 2>&1, &>~10 min · stderr, redirect, merge
   • 04
     /dev/null — The Black Hole~8 min · dev-null, silence
   • 05
     Pipes: The Unix Superpower~12 min · pipe, composition, philosophy
   • 06
     The Unix Philosophy~10 min · philosophy, composition, history
   • 07
     sort + uniq~12 min · sort, uniq, frequency
   • 08
     wc, head, tail~10 min · wc, head, tail, follow
   • 09
     cut and tr~10 min · cut, tr, fields
   • 10
     xargs and tee~12 min · xargs, tee, parallel

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

4. 04📝Text Processing Power Tools

   0/10 lessons

   grep, sed, awk, jq, regex, encoding

   Search, select, transform, and compare text without throwing away record boundaries or encoding information.

   Lesson list (10)

   • 01
     cat, less, more~8 min · cat, less, more, pager
   • 02
     grep Deep Dive~15 min · grep, regex, search
   • 03
     sed: Stream Editor~15 min · sed, substitute, in-place
   • 04
     awk: Pattern-Action Language~15 min · awk, fields, scripting
   • 05
     tr: Character Translation~8 min · tr, character
   • 06
     diff: Comparing Files~10 min · diff, patch, compare
   • 07
     jq: JSON Processing~13 min · jq, json
   • 08
     Regular Expressions Basics~15 min · regex, patterns
   • 09
     Real-World One-Liners~13 min · one-liner, compose
   • 10
     File Encoding~10 min · utf-8, encoding, bom, line-endings

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

5. 05⚙️Environment and Configuration

   0/10 lessons

   Variables, dotfiles, aliases, PATH, Homebrew, SSH

   Separate process environment from shell startup behavior and build configuration that remains explainable across machines.

   Lesson list (10)

   • 01
     Environment Variables~12 min · env, export, variables
   • 02
     Shell Configuration Files~13 min · zshrc, zprofile, zshenv, bashrc
   • 03
     Login vs Non-Login, Interactive vs Non-Interactive~10 min · login-shell, interactive, non-interactive
   • 04
     Aliases vs Functions~10 min · alias, function
   • 05
     PATH Management~10 min · path, homebrew, ordering
   • 06
     Prompt Customization~10 min · prompt, starship, powerlevel10k
   • 07
     direnv: Per-Directory Environment~10 min · direnv, envrc, project
   • 08
     Homebrew Essentials~10 min · homebrew, package, macos
   • 09
     SSH Config~10 min · ssh, config, tunnel
   • 10
     Dotfiles Management~12 min · dotfiles, chezmoi, stow, git

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

6. 06🌐Network and Remote Work

   0/8 lessons

   SSH, rsync, curl, Tailscale, network triage

   Connect to remote systems while keeping exposure, identity, transfer direction, and trust boundaries explicit.

   Lesson list (8)

   • 01
     SSH Basics: Keys and Agent~13 min · ssh, ed25519, ssh-agent
   • 02
     SSH Tunnels — -L, -R, -D~13 min · ssh, tunnel, port-forward
   • 03
     rsync: Smart File Sync~13 min · rsync, sync, backup
   • 04
     scp vs rsync vs sftp~8 min · scp, sftp, rsync
   • 05
     curl: HTTP from the Shell~13 min · curl, http, api
   • 06
     HTTPie — Friendlier HTTP~8 min · httpie, http, alternative
   • 07
     Tailscale + SSH workflow~10 min · tailscale, vpn, fleet
   • 08
     Network Tools: ping, dig, traceroute~10 min · ping, dig, traceroute, netcat

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

7. 07🔄Process Management and Job Control

   0/10 lessons

   ps, kill, jobs, tmux, cron, lsof, signals

   Find running work, control it with the least destructive mechanism, and assign long-lived processes a real owner.

   Lesson list (10)

   • 01
     ps: Listing Processes~10 min · ps, process
   • 02
     top, htop, btop~8 min · top, htop, btop, monitor
   • 03
     kill: Sending Signals~10 min · kill, signals, term
   • 04
     Job Control: bg, fg, jobs~10 min · jobs, bg, fg
   • 05
     Background and nohup~8 min · nohup, disown, background
   • 06
     tmux Essentials~13 min · tmux, session, persistence
   • 07
     Cron and launchd~12 min · cron, launchd, schedule
   • 08
     System Services (brew services, launchctl)~10 min · services, launchctl, brew
   • 09
     lsof: Who's Using What~10 min · lsof, files, ports
   • 10
     Signals Deep Dive and watch~10 min · signal, trap, watch

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

8. 08📜Shell Scripting

   0/12 lessons

   Variables, loops, conditionals, functions, error handling

   Turn interactive commands into scripts with explicit inputs, failure handling, cleanup limits, and safe state changes.

   Lesson list (12)

   • 01
     The Shebang Line~8 min · shebang, interpreter
   • 02
     Variables and Quoting~13 min · variables, quoting, expansion
   • 03
     Conditionals: if/elif/else and [[ ]]~12 min · if, test, comparison
   • 04
     Loops: for, while, until~12 min · for, while, until, loops
   • 05
     Case Statements~8 min · case, switch
   • 06
     Functions in Scripts~10 min · function, local, return
   • 07
     Command Substitution and Arithmetic~10 min · substitution, arithmetic
   • 08
     Arrays~10 min · arrays, indexed, associative
   • 09
     Error Handling: set -euo pipefail~13 min · set, errexit, pipefail, nounset
   • 10
     trap: Cleanup on Exit~10 min · trap, cleanup, exit
   • 11
     Heredocs and Script Arguments~10 min · heredoc, args, getopts
   • 12
     Practical Scripts: backup, deploy, daily-check~13 min · practical, backup, deploy

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

9. 09⚡Modern CLI Tools

   0/8 lessons

   bat, fzf, ripgrep, zoxide, delta, mise

   Add friendlier interactive tools without pretending their options and output are drop-in replacements for classic Unix commands.

   Lesson list (8)

   • 01
     Modern Replacements: bat, eza, fd, ripgrep, dust, duf~13 min · bat, eza, fd, ripgrep, dust, duf
   • 02
     fzf: Fuzzy Finder Magic~13 min · fzf, fuzzy, history
   • 03
     zoxide: Smart cd~8 min · zoxide, cd, frecency
   • 04
     delta: Git Diffs You Can Read~8 min · delta, git, diff
   • 05
     jq, yq, dasel — Structured Data~10 min · jq, yq, dasel, json, yaml
   • 06
     Starship: Cross-Shell Prompt~8 min · starship, prompt
   • 07
     Atuin: Shell History on Steroids~10 min · atuin, history, sync
   • 08
     mise / asdf: Multi-Tool Version Manager~10 min · mise, asdf, version-manager

   ✓Quiz · 5 questions→

10. 10💻Advanced Patterns and macOS Specifics

    0/5 lessons

    Brace expansion, parameter expansion, process substitution, macOS

    Reason about expansion order and process boundaries so compact shell expressions stay predictable.

    Lesson list (5)

    • 01
      Brace Expansion and Globbing Advanced~10 min · brace, glob, extglob
    • 02
      Parameter Expansion Advanced~13 min · parameter-expansion, default, substitute
    • 03
      Process Substitution~8 min · process-substitution, compare
    • 04
      Subshells and Command Grouping~8 min · subshell, grouping, scope
    • 05
      macOS-Specific: pbcopy, open, osascript~10 min · macos, pbcopy, open, osascript

    ✓Quiz · 3 questions→