Linux - Changing Directories with the 'cd' Command

Linux – Changing Directories with ‘cd’ Command

Changing directories is likely the second most common command in Linux aside from ‘ls’. Using the ‘cd’ command, you can change your current working directory.

Recall the ‘pwd’ command prints your current working directory.

Also, it is important that you understand the use of the following,

·         ‘..’- Parent directory

·         ‘.’- Current directory

·         ‘~’- Home directory

Examples

Change to your home directory using ‘cd’,

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1

$ cd

$ pwd

You can also use ‘cd ~’ to change to your home directory,

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1

$ cd ~

$ pwd

/home/fred

Change to a subdirectory,

$ pwd

/home/fred

$ cd folder1/myfiles

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1/myfiles

The above cd command is the same as ‘$ cd ./folder1/myfiles’, however the ‘./’ is not necessary.

Change to the parent directory using ‘cd ..’,

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1/myfiles

$ cd ..

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1

Change to a directory in the parent directory,

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder1

$ cd ../folder2

$ pwd

/home/fred/folder2

Linux Commands - Viewing the Current Directory 'pwd' and 'ls' | Linux - Finding A File