Click the virtual machine below to start practicing
Your progress through the guide is saved. Start a fresh machine to keep practicing.
cd (change directory) moves your shell around the tree. This lab's ~/project contains:
project/
├── Documents/letters/
└── Pictures/
├── Hawaii/
└── Japan/
This lab is the hands-on companion to the cd (Change Directory) lesson from Linux Journey (CC BY-SA 4.0).
A path that doesn't start with / is relative: it's looked up from where you are now.
cd Pictures
cd Hawaii
pwd
Stay in Hawaii and click Continue.
.. means "the directory above". You can use it inside a longer path to step up and across in one move:
cd ../Japan
pwd
/home/learner/project/Pictures/Japan
. means "this directory", so cd . goes nowhere.
A path that starts with / is absolute: it works the same from anywhere.
cd /home/learner/project/Documents/letters
pwd
cd - jumps back to the previous directory and prints it.cd ~ (or plain cd) goes to your home directory.cd -
cd ~
pwd
/home/learner
You can move anywhere in the filesystem.
/... is the parent directory and . is the current one.cd - goes back; cd or cd ~ goes home.