Learn Understand first, then practice while the concept is still fresh.

M11 - File System Lab: Mini Scenario

Use navigation, reading, creating, moving, searching, and archiving together to clean up a safe practice project from the terminal.

File System

File System Lab: Mini Scenario

Use navigation, reading, creating, moving, searching, and archiving together to clean up a safe practice project from the terminal.

30 min INTERMEDIATE BOTH Curriculum-reviewed
Prerequisites
Module M06 - Navigation: CLI Translation Module M07 - File Operations: View and Read Module M08 - File Operations: Create and Edit Module M09 - File Operations: Copy, Move, Delete Module M10 - Search and Find
What you should be able to do after this
  • Survey a working directory from the terminal.
  • Create a small folder structure and move files into it.
  • Read a hidden config file and locate one note by search.
  • Archive the final folder for transfer.

The Goal

This lab is not about speed. It is about doing a small sequence correctly.

You will work in a safe practice folder, inspect what is there, organize it, confirm one hidden setting, search for one note, and archive the result.

Practice Rule

Stay inside the folder created for this exercise. Do not point these commands at real project directories until the sequence feels routine.

Step 1: Create the Practice Folder

Create the Lab Folder

cd $env:USERPROFILE mkdir -Force TerminalPractice\incoming cd TerminalPractice\incoming New-Item -ItemType File -Path index.html, style.css, notes.txt, todo.log New-Item -ItemType File -Path .env -Value “MODE=staging” Add-Content -Path .\notes.txt -Value “archive after cleanup”

Create the Lab Folder

cd ~ mkdir -p TerminalPractice/incoming cd TerminalPractice/incoming touch index.html style.css notes.txt todo.log printf “MODE=staging\n” > .env echo “archive after cleanup” >> notes.txt

Step 2: Complete the Cleanup

Work inside incoming and complete these tasks in order.

Task 1: Survey the folder

List the directory contents and make sure you can see the hidden .env file.

Task 2: Create structure

Create these folders:

  1. site
  2. docs
  3. logs

Task 3: Move files intentionally

  • move index.html and style.css into site
  • move notes.txt into docs
  • move todo.log into logs

Task 4: Read the hidden config

Read .env without opening a GUI editor. What value is set for MODE?

Task 5: Search one file

Find the line containing the word archive inside the notes file.

Task 6: Archive the cleaned project

Step out to the parent directory and create a single archive of TerminalPractice.

Suggested Solution

Task 1

Survey the Folder

Get-ChildItem -Force

Survey the Folder

ls -la

Task 2 and Task 3

Create Structure and Move Files

mkdir site, docs, logs Move-Item index.html, style.css -Destination .\site
Move-Item notes.txt -Destination .\docs
Move-Item todo.log -Destination .\logs\

Create Structure and Move Files

mkdir site docs logs mv index.html style.css ./site/ mv notes.txt ./docs/ mv todo.log ./logs/

Task 4 and Task 5

Read and Search

Get-Content ..env Select-String -Path .\docs\notes.txt -Pattern “archive”

Read and Search

cat ./.env grep “archive” ./docs/notes.txt

Task 6

Archive the Folder

cd … Compress-Archive -Path .\TerminalPractice -DestinationPath .\TerminalPractice.zip

Archive the Folder

cd ../.. tar -czvf TerminalPractice.tar.gz ./TerminalPractice

Move On When

You can do this lab with only occasional command lookup, and you can explain why you inspected before moving and searched before assuming.

That is the real skill from this section: careful terminal work, not theatrical terminal work.