# Setup: The Terminal on Linux

Open a terminal on Ubuntu, check that it runs bash 5, install bats with apt, and make the practice folder every lesson in this course uses.

Novice · Unix · Linux · Updated November 10, 2026

## After this lesson you can

- Open a terminal on Ubuntu and check its shell with echo $SHELL and bash --version
- Choose the apt commands that install a tool on Ubuntu, and check it with --version

## Key takeaways

- On Ubuntu, Ctrl+Alt+T opens a terminal. It's also in the app list, as Terminal.
- echo $SHELL names your shell, and bash --version gives its version. Ubuntu's is bash 5, so there's nothing to upgrade.
- apt is Ubuntu's package manager. sudo apt update refreshes its list, and sudo apt install bats installs the exercise checker.
- sudo runs one command as the administrator. It asks for your password, and nothing shows on the screen while you type it.

If your computer runs Ubuntu, you're using the same kind of system as most of the servers that run the internet, and its terminal is the same one you'd use on them. bash comes with it. This lesson opens the terminal, checks what you have, and adds the one tool the course needs, in about ten minutes. (On a Mac or Windows? *Setup: The Terminal on a Mac* or *Setup: The Terminal on Windows* is your lesson instead.)

## Open a terminal

Press **Ctrl+Alt+T**, and a terminal opens. You can also click **Show Apps** (the grid of dots at the bottom of the dock), type `Terminal`, and press Enter. You'll use it often, so right-click its icon in the dock and choose **Pin to Dash**.

![Ubuntu's Terminal, newly opened: a window with one line of text, the user name, an @, the computer's name, a colon and a ~, ending in a $ sign with the cursor after it](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/TODO)

The line in the window, something like `sam@laptop:~$`, is the **prompt**: the shell saying "ready: type a command". *Shell, Terminal, Prompt* takes it apart.

On another Linux, such as Fedora or Linux Mint, the terminal is in the app menu too. Everything in this course works the same, except installing software: Fedora uses `dnf` where Ubuntu uses `apt`.

## Check your shell

The program that reads what you type is called a **shell**. Ask which one yours is:

```bash
echo $SHELL
```

```text
/bin/bash
```

`$SHELL` is read "the value of SHELL": the shell your account opens. Now its version:

```bash
bash --version
```

```text
GNU bash, version 5.3.9(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
Copyright (C) 2025 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>

This is free software; you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
```

Only the first line matters: version 5.3.9. That's Ubuntu 26.04; Ubuntu 24.04 says 5.2, and everything in this course works the same on both.

## Install bats with apt

The exercises in this course are checked by **bats**, a small program that runs checks written for bash. Ubuntu installs programs with **apt**, its **package manager**: a catalog of thousands of free programs, each installed by its name.

Installing software changes the whole computer, not only your own files, so it needs the administrator's permission. That's what `sudo` (read "sue-doo", for "superuser do") gives one command at a time. It asks for your password, the one you sign in with. Nothing shows on the screen while you type it; type it anyway and press Enter.

```bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install bats
```

`apt update` refreshes apt's catalog, so it knows the newest versions, and `apt install bats` downloads and installs bats. If apt asks whether to continue, press Y, then Enter. Then check it worked:

```bash
bats --version
```

It prints `Bats` and a version number, such as `Bats 1.13.0` on Ubuntu 26.04. If it says `command not found`, run the install line again and read its last lines for an error.

## Make your practice folder

Every lesson works in one practice folder, `terminal-practice`, in your home folder, so nothing you try touches your real files. Make it, go into it, and ask where you are:

```bash
mkdir -p ~/terminal-practice
cd ~/terminal-practice
pwd
```

```text
/home/sam/terminal-practice
```

You'll see your own user name instead of sam. `mkdir` makes a folder (Module 2 covers it), `cd` moves you into it, and `pwd` says where you are (both are in the next chapter). Now type `xdg-open .` and the Files app opens the same folder: two doors into one place.

## Check yourself

2 questions to try on the lesson page.

## So what

Your Ubuntu terminal now has everything this course uses: bash 5 for commands and scripts, apt for installing tools, bats for exercise checks and a practice folder to try things in.

## Key terms

- [Ubuntu](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/ubuntu)
- [Terminal](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/terminal)
- [apt](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/apt)
- [sudo](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/sudo)
- [Package Manager](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/package-manager)

## Cheat sheets

- [Setup: The Terminal on Linux](https://www.ask-codey.com/cheat-sheets/bash-setup-linux-cheat-sheet)

## Related

- [Shell, Terminal, Prompt](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-shell-terminal-prompt)
- [Exercise: Your Practice Folder](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/exercise-bash-your-practice-folder)

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-setup-linux