Linux Commands - Viewing the Current Directory - 'pwd' and 'ls'

Linux Commands - Viewing the Current Directory - 'pwd' and 'ls'

If you are not familiar with the Linux file system, please read The Linux/Unix File System.

How Do I Know Which Directory I Am In?

Use the command pwd (print working directory),

$ pwd

/home/fredf

List Files, File Permissions, The Chmod Command

To list the files in a directory type ls,

$ ls

a.out file1.c file3 src

The option -a will show all the files in the directory,

$ ls -a

.bash_profile a.out file1.c file3 src

The special file .bash_profile is a configuration file which is used to configure the Bash shell when a user logs in.

Note that files starting with a dot are hidden files and are not displayed during a normal ls command. Hidden files are usually used to store configuration information for various programs.

The option -l will display a long listing,

$ ls -l

-rwxr-xr-x 1 fredf fredf 20987 Oct 10 10:04 a.out

-rwxr-xr-x 1 fredf fredf 1098 Mar 7 2005 file1.c

-rwxr-xr-x 1 fredf fredf 654 Jun 12 18:44 file3

drwxr-xr-x+ 1 fredf fredf 0 Jan 01 2005 src

The first column displays the permissions for the files. Permission attributes are changed with the chmod command.

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