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This short article will discuss how we can use Git Bash to have a Unix-style command line environment in Windows operating system and run multiple commands in this terminal.

Git Bash

Git is a collection of command-line utilities created to run in a Unix-style command-line environment. Unix command-line terminals are present in many modern operating systems, including Linux and macOS.

Therefore, Linux and macOS are complementary operating systems when it comes to using Git. In contrast, Microsoft Windows uses a non-Unix terminal environment called the Windows Command Prompt.

For Microsoft Windows environments, Git Bash is a program that provides an emulation layer for the Git command-line interface.

The abbreviation BASH stands for Bourne Again Shell. You can use a shell or terminal program to access the operating system through written commands.

The popular default shell for Linux and macOS is Bash.

Git Bash Operations

The operation of Git Bash is the same as that of a typical Bash session. It will be helpful to review the basics of Bash usage.

This document focuses on Git commands for changing directories.

Git commands to change drives

There are many commands used in Git Bash which are the same commands we use in Unix Bash but different from Windows command line interface.

1. To get the current directory, we use the command pwd.
2. We use the ls command to list the contents of the current working directory, which is different from the dir command in the Windows CLI.
3. To change directory to another directory, we use cd command. Windows and Bash have the same cd command for changing the current working directory to any other folder in the hierarchy.

For example, if we needed to change the current working directory to drive F, we would use the cd command like this:

Likewise, we can provide the full path to the directory we wish to process. Let's look at another example where we navigate to another folder in the C drive.

Now, we can view the current working directory through the pwd command and then list the folders and files under the directory.

In this way, Git Bash is used and provides us with a Unix-style command line terminal environment.