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How do I navigate between directories in terminal?

I am new to Linux and Ubuntu and have tried changing to folders/directories with some difficulty.

Could someone explain why the following commands failed to change to the desired target

folder/directory?

sharon@sharon:~$ cd Home

bash: cd: Home: No such file or directory

sharon@sharon:~$ cd /Home

bash: cd: /Home: No such file or directory

sharon@sharon:~$ cd Documents

sharon@sharon:~/Documents$ cd Downloads

bash: cd: Downloads: No such file or directory

sharon@sharon:~/Documents$ cd /Downloads

bash: cd: /Downloads: No such file or directory

sharon@sharon:~/Documents$

command-line directory

edited Dec 25 '12 at 7:44Dec 25 '12 at 7:44

Sergey

22.9k 1 46 67

asked Dec 24 '12 at 21:18Dec 24 '12 at 21:18

n00b

467 4 8 25

4 Answers

The filesystem is GNU/Linux is like a tree, except that the root is on top. :-) So you have structure

like:

/

bin/

home/

sharon/

Documents/

Downloads/

fileA.txt

fileB.jpg

usr/

var/

If you want to move inside the tree, one option is to use relative paths. If you are in ,

then typing will work, because Downloads is an immediate child of your current

directory. If you are in the subfolder and want to change directory ( ) to ,

you have to go up ( ) and then to . So the correct command would be .

/home/sharon

cd Downloads

Documents cd Downloads

.. Downloads cd ../Downloads

You could also enter an absolute path. So the folder is a subfolder of which is a

subfolder of which is … (you get the idea :-)) So you can also enter

wherever you are in the filesystem.

Downloads sharon

home cd /home/sharon/Downloads

always refers to the home directory of the current user ( in your case). If you

enter you'll land in your folder.

~ /home/sharon

cd ~/Downloads Downloads

refers to the current directory, so is roughly equivalent to .. cd ./Downloads cd Downloads

means "parent directory"...

at the beginning of file path refers to the root directory./

The next nice thing is tab expansion. If you enter (last is pressing Tabulator key), the

bash automatically expands it to .

cd ~/Dow TabTab

cd ~/Downloads

As the others said GNU/Linux is case sensitive. So it makes a difference if you enter , or

. Furthermore I hope that you see now that there is a difference between and .

Home hOme

home /home home

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1 of 3 10/16/2014 04:35 PM

The first is adressed absolute while the last is relative to your current directory.


Sergey

22.9k 1 46 67

answered Dec 24 '12 at 21:51Dec 24 '12 at 21:51

qbi

9,180 5 32 90

–

@ qbi: Wow, you're awesome. I love your detailed explanation on how to navigate among folders/directories. Are

you a teacher or professor in an educational institution? Most IT guys know a lot of IT stuff but breaking concepts

down to manageable and "digestible" chunks so that newbies can understand is only within the grasp of a handful

but gifted guys like you. n00b Dec 24 '12 at 22:04

– Thanks, and yes, I'm am a kind of teacher. :-) qbi Dec 24 '12 at 22:32

sharon@sharon:~$ cd Home

bash: cd: Home: No such file or directory

The little cedilla ~ indicates you are already in your /home/sharon directory. When you ask for 'cd

Home' the terminal looks for /home/sharon/Home. There is none.

sharon@sharon:~$ cd /Home

bash: cd: /Home: No such file or directory

Now you are asking, given the leading slash, to go to a directory above the current location; that is

/home/Home. There is none.

sharon@sharon:~$ cd Documents

sharon@sharon:~/Documents$

Success!

sharon@sharon:~/Documents$ cd /Downloads

bash: cd: /Downloads: No such file or directory

I'm not too sure where exactly this is. If you want to change from /home/sharon/Documents to

/home/sharon/Downloads, please try:

cd ~/Downloads

If you want to go directly to your home directory, that is /home/sharon, simply do:

cd

Also you can go Step back with

cd ..

And you can print the directory you are working in with (print working directory)

pwd


a2r

74 6


chili555

9,802 2 11 30

– @ chili555: Thanks a lot for helping newbies like me. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. n00b Dec 24

'12 at 21:46

1 – The leading slash indicates a path relative to the root, not one above the current directory. That would be ../

psusi Dec 25 '12 at 15:09

The command tells you why: There is no such directory.

Filenames are case sensetive, so it is /home, not /Home. Without a leading slash, it is assumed to be

relative to the current directory, and the Downloads directory is not in ~/Documents, nor is it in /,

but in your home directory, to which is a shortcut, thus it is ~/Documents.~


psusi

19k 1 22 54


2 of 3 10/16/2014 04:35 PM

– @ psusi: Thanks to you, too. Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones. n00b Dec 24 '12 at 21:48

– @ psusi: What does the leading slash mean? n00b Dec 24 '12 at 21:48

– @ psusi: What does ./<filename> mean? n00b Dec 24 '12 at 21:49

– @noob, means start from the root directory and means the current directory./ . psusi Dec 25 '12 at 15:05

I have to answer over this, because i can't comment on answers -.-

What does the leading slash mean? – n00b

it means that the thin you are talking about is a directory not a file. Files don't have to have file

endings like in Windows, so would be a file in your home-directory but

would be a directory/ a folder.

~/thisIsAFile

~/thisIsAFile/

What does ./ mean? – n00b

That means that the file you want to access is in your current directory.

Other usefull tips:

You can go a folder back with

cd ..

And you can get the path you are in with (print working directory)

pwd

edited Dec 25 '12 at 15:21Dec 25 '12 at 15:21 answered Dec 24 '12 at 22:01Dec 24 '12 at 22:01

a2r

74 6

–

@ a2r: Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that files don't have file extensions like in Microsoft Windows. Do

programs have file extensions in Ubuntu too? n00b Dec 24 '12 at 22:18

–

Generally not, the system doesn't care what endings a file has, if its marked as executable ( google about chmod )

then you can run it as a programm. Also there is a global variable (google about it) called $PATH there are a view

directories saved (you can see which there are with ). And when you try to run a program like you typeecho $PATH

in the terminal. Your system looks throw the folders in $PATH and searches for gedit.gedit a2r Dec 25 '12 at

12:33

– That would be a trailing slash, not a leading slash. Also you must have a space in there before the ... psusi Dec

25 '12 at 15:07

– @ psusi: Sorry. I'm a bit confused here. What's a trailing slash? leading slash? Examples please? Thanks in advance.

n00b Dec 27 '12 at 13:36


3 of 3 10/16/2014 04:35 PM