User Guide

33
Accessing the Command Line
While most tasks can be completed using the desktop
environment, there are still some things that you will have to do
from the command line.
To access the command line from the graphical environment:
• On the desktop, click LXTerminal; or
• Click the Raspbian Menu button, point to
Accessories, and then click LXTerminal.
In the command line, files and folders have file names and file
paths. The file path includes the names of the folders and
subfolders that the file is stored in. For example, a file test.png
in the pi user’s Desktop folder has the full file path: /home/pi/
Desktop/test.png
File paths that begin with a forward slash start from the top-level
folder. So the example above tells the system: start at the top-
level and move into the home folder, then move into the pi
subfolder, then into the Desktop folder, and then find the file
test.png.
If you are already in the home folder, you can refer to the same
file as: pi/Desktop/test.png
And if you are in a subfolder of /home/pi/Desktop, you can refer
to the file using two dots that symbolize moving to the parent
directory:
../test.png
To run commands: type the command using the keyboard and
then press Enter. There are a large number of commands
available (too many to list here), but these are some of the most
common:
To Do This
List the contents of the current
folder
Type ls and then press Enter.