SUSE LINUX Documentation - Index of

directory where you ran the command. To switch to a directory two levels higher than
the current directory, enter cd ../... ls -l ../.. lists the contents of the directory
two levels higher.
Examples of Addressing a File
The cd commands in Section 3.1.3, “Working with Directories and Files” (page 96)
used relative paths. You can use also absolute paths. For example, suppose you want
to copy a file from your home directory to a subdirectory of /tmp:
1 First, from your home directory create a subdirectory in /tmp:
a If your current directory is not your home directory, enter cd ~ to switch
to it. From anywhere in the file system, you can reach your home directory
by entering cd ~.
b In your home directory, enter mkdir /tmp/test. mkdir stands for
“make directory”. This command creates a new directory named test in
the /tmp directory. In this case, use an absolute path to create the directory.
c To check what happened, now enter ls -l /tmp. The new directory
test should appear in the list of contents of the /tmp directory.
2 Now create a new file in your home directory and copy it to the /tmp/test
directory by using a relative path.
a Enter touch myfile.txt. The touch command with the
myfile.txt option creates a new, empty file named myfile.txt in
your current directory.
b Check this by entering ls -l. The new file should appear in the list of
contents.
c Enter cp myfile.txt ../tmp/test. This copies myfile.txt to
the directory /tmp/test without changing the name of the file.
d Check this by entering ls -l /tmp/test. The file myfile.txt
should appear in the list of contents for /tmp/test.
Working with the Shell 97