# Exercise: The Moving-Day List

Finish a new apartment's moving-day jobs in the terminal, deleting the trash safely, removing an empty box, writing a door sign and a to-do list, fixing a setting in nano and reading the ends of long files, then let a check script tell you what's done.

Apprentice · Unix · Linux · Updated November 10, 2026

Sam and Maya have moved into a new apartment, and the hallway is still full of boxes, bubble wrap and a vase that didn't make it. Somewhere in that mess is a birth certificate that must not end up in the trash. Your job is to work through the moving-day list in the terminal: clear the hallway safely, unpack one box, write a sign and a to-do list, fix the thermostat, and read the ends of two long files. A check script looks at the apartment and tells you which jobs are done.

## Before you start

You need a terminal: the Terminal app on a Mac, or Ubuntu on Linux or in WSL on Windows. The check runs with **bats**, a small program that runs checks written for bash. If `bats --version` doesn't print a version number yet, install it:

```bash
sudo apt install bats       # Ubuntu, and Ubuntu in WSL
brew install bats-core      # a Mac, with Homebrew
```

`sudo` asks for your password, the one you use to sign in; nothing shows on the screen while you type it.

## Get the exercise code

Open this lesson's GitHub repository, [github.com/ask-codey/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list](https://github.com/ask-codey/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list), also linked from the **Exercise** box beside the lesson. Click **Code**, then **Download ZIP**, and unzip it into your `terminal-practice` folder. Or clone it with Git.

The folder holds:

- `apartment/`: the new apartment. This is where you work.
- `answers.txt`: three questions, each with a numbered line for your answer.
- `check.bats`: the check. You don't need to change it.

## What to do

Open a terminal, `cd` into the exercise folder (the one with `answers.txt` in it), then `cd apartment` and look around with `ls`. Then work through the list:

1. **Throw out the trash.** In `hallway`, delete every `bubble-wrap` file and `broken-vase.txt`, and keep `birth-certificate.txt`. Look before you delete, as in *Deleting Safely: rm and rmdir*.
2. **Unpack the book box.** Move the three books from `hallway/box-books` into `living-room` with `mv` (*Copy, Move and Rename: cp and mv*), then remove the empty `box-books` folder. Leave `hallway/box-bedroom` as it is: it isn't unpacked yet.
3. **Make a door sign.** Write `door-sign.txt` in the `apartment` folder, holding one line of words of your own.
4. **Add to the to-do list.** Add two lines to the end of `todo.txt`, keeping the three it has: `- buy curtains` and `- call the internet company`.
5. **Fix the thermostat.** Open `thermostat.conf` in nano and change `temperature=78` to `temperature=70`. Change nothing else.
6. **Read the ends of two long files.** Answer the three questions in `answers.txt` with `head` and `tail`. Open `answers.txt` in nano (`nano ../answers.txt` from inside `apartment`), write each answer after its `)`, and save. The file starts like this:

```text
# Example: what is the first word of apartment/todo.txt?
# 0) TO

# 1. How many boxes did the movers bring? The header in the first lines of apartment/packing-list.txt says.
1)
```

## Check your work

From the exercise folder (not from inside `apartment`):

```bash
bats check.bats
```

At first most checks fail. That's expected: each job you finish turns its check into a ✓. A failing check names the job and gives a hint, for example *thermostat.conf still says temperature=78. Open it with nano, change 78 to 70, save with Ctrl+O and Enter, then quit with Ctrl+X.*

## Hints

- **A pattern can match more than you think.** Run `ls` with the exact pattern first, or use `rm -i` and answer `n` for anything you want to keep.
- **`rmdir` refuses a folder with things in it.** That's the point: move the books out first. Don't reach for `rm -r` on a box that isn't empty.
- **One arrow replaces, two arrows add.** If `todo.txt` loses its lines, put them back from inside `apartment` with `printf 'TO DO\n- unpack\n- find the remote\n' > todo.txt`, then add the new lines with `>>`.
- **nano's keys** are listed at the bottom of its screen: `^O` is Ctrl+O, which saves, and `^X` is Ctrl+X, which quits.
- **The answers are at the ends of the files.** `head -n 5` shows the first five lines and `tail -n 1` the last one. A log's newest line is at the bottom.

## When you're done

Every check passes:

```text
check.bats
 ✓ the apartment folder is still here
 ✓ the bubble wrap and the broken vase are gone
 ✓ the birth certificate is still in the hallway
 ✓ the books are in the living room
 ✓ the empty book box is gone
 ✓ the bedroom box still holds the photo album
 ✓ door-sign.txt holds one line
 ✓ todo.txt kept its three lines and gained the two new ones
 ✓ the thermostat is set to 70
 ✓ 1) how many boxes the movers brought
 ✓ 2) the box with the spare key
 ✓ 3) when the last box came upstairs

12 tests, 0 failures
```

Now look back at the to-do list. You added two lines with `>>`. How would you add ten at once, without typing `>> todo.txt` ten times? (*Writing to Files: echo, > and >>* shows one way.)

## Submit your exercise

The exercise is how you finish this lesson. When your work is done, put it on GitHub in a repo of your own, then submit that repo's address here.

1. On GitHub, click **+**, then **New repository**. Name it (for example `exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list`), choose **Public**, and click **Create repository**. Leave out the README: your folder already has one.
2. In a terminal in your exercise folder (Ubuntu in WSL on Windows), send your work to your new repo. If you downloaded the ZIP:

   ```bash
   git init -b main
   git add .
   git commit -m "My solution"
   git remote add origin https://github.com/your-name/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list.git
   git push -u origin main
   ```

   If you cloned the starter instead, point your copy at your own repo, then commit and push:

   ```bash
   git remote set-url origin https://github.com/your-name/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list.git
   git add .
   git commit -m "My solution"
   git push -u origin main
   ```

3. Paste your repo's address, such as `https://github.com/your-name/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list`, into **Submit your exercise** on this page. The site checks that the repo is public and holds your commits, and then the lesson is complete.

Changed something after you submitted? Push it, and submit again: your latest submission is the one that counts.

## So what

Deleting without regret, writing files from a single line, fixing a setting with no mouse and reading the end of a log are the everyday jobs of anyone who looks after a computer, from a laptop to a website's server.

## Key terms

- [rm](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/rm)
- [rmdir](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/rmdir)
- [Redirection](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/redirection)
- [Text Editor (nano, vim)](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/text-editor-nano-vim)
- [head and tail](https://www.ask-codey.com/glossary/head-and-tail)

## Related

- [Deleting Safely: rm and rmdir](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-deleting-safely)
- [Writing to Files: echo, > and >>](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-writing-to-files)
- [Editing in the Terminal: nano](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-editing-with-nano)
- [The Start and End of a File: head and tail](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/bash-head-and-tail)

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/exercise-bash-the-moving-day-list