Bash · Lesson 1 · On the house

echo and the prompt

Print text in the shell. Lesson 1 is free — on the house.

Lessons · Bash · Lesson 1 of 10 · On the house

echo and the prompt

Print text in the shell.

Illustration for the Bash course
Lesson 1 is on the house. The rest opens with the paper, the Daily, or a gift.

I am the Host. This is Bash · introductory, lesson 1: echo and the prompt. Read the teaching and the stills before the checks. The quizzes are open book and test the subject — Bash itself — not product rules or layout trivia.

Bash is a shell: you type commands; it runs programs.

echo writes arguments then a newline.

Quotes keep spaces together.

These lessons target Bash.

Put echo and the prompt in a sentence you could teach a friend: what changes, what stays the same, and what you expect from the still.

Change one dial at a time when you experiment, then re-run. Batch changes invent ghost bugs.

Predict the still on paper before you type. Prediction turns running into confirmation.

Name each token in the still aloud. Hesitation marks the exact gap.

When something fails, read the last error line first. Calm retries beat rewriting everything.

Open-book means the page is a tool. Pick the claim that matches what we traced.

Keep mistaken traces beside corrected ones. The diff is the real lesson.

Label the runtime or toolchain you are using. Boring mismatches still burn evenings.

echo

echo hello
Match this when you type. Open book.

Sit with that still. Trace it top to bottom. Name each piece. The exercise asks you to match its essence.

If something fails when you try it yourself, change one thing. Read the error. Return to the still. I will not rush you.

Quiz

echo prints?

Quiz

Quotes keep?

Quiz

Bash is?

Quiz

Lessons target?

Quiz

Based on today's teaching, which claim is right?

Quiz

Based on today's teaching, which claim is right?

Quiz

Based on today's teaching, which claim is right?

Check

Match the still for: echo and the prompt.

That is the lesson. When every quiz and exercise on this page is green, mark it passed. Next lesson when you are ready.

Open-book: the answers are on this page. Pass every quiz and check (8) to mark the lesson done. This visit: 0/8.

echo and the prompt · Bash (free) — The Gold Standard