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Abstract: Unix shells such as Bash or Zsh are command-line interpreters for Unix-like operating systems: the user enters commands as text -- interactively in a terminal or in scripts -- and the shell passes them to the operating system.

Giving instructions to the machine via text instead of using a graphical user interface (GUI) is very powerful:

• Automating tasks performed via GUI interfaces is something that AI agents are now -- tentatively -- becoming able to do, but for repetitive tasks that can be completed via the command line, automation has been easy to do for decades.
• Commands can be written as scripts, enabling the creation of reproducible workflows.
• Finally, Unix shells allow to securely access remote machines and supercomputers. This course is a short hands-on introduction that will get you started with the Unix shell and logging in to the Alliance supercomputers.