3 - Weber State University

90 Chapter 3 Exploring Linux Filesystems
You can also use the ~ metacharacter to refer to another user’s home directory by appending
a user name at the end:
[root@server1 ~]# cd ~mary
[root@server1 mary]# pwd
/home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# cd ~
[root@server1 ~]# pwd
/root
[root@server1 ~]#_
In many of the examples discussed earlier, the argument specified after the cd command is
an absolute pathname to a directory, meaning that the system has all the information it
needs to find the destination directory because the pathname starts from the root (/) of the
system. However, in most Linux commands, you can also use a relative pathname in place
of an absolute pathname to reduce typing. A relative pathname is the pathname of a target
file or directory relative to your current directory in the tree. To specify a directory underneath
your current directory, simply refer to that directory by name (do not start the pathname with
a / character). To refer to a directory one step closer to the root of the tree (also known as a
parent directory), simply use two dots (..). An example of using relative pathnames to move
around the directory tree is shown next:
[root@server1 ~]# cd /home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# pwd
/home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# cd ..
[root@server1 home]# pwd
/home
[root@server1 home]# cd mary
[root@server1 mary]# pwd
/home/mary
[root@server1 mary]#_
In the preceding example, we used “..” to move up one parent directory and then used the
word “mary” to specify the mary subdirectory relative to our current location in the tree;
however, you can also move more than one level up or down the directory tree:
[root@server1 ~]# cd /home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# pwd
/home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# cd ../..
[root@server1 /]# pwd
/
[root@server1 /]# cd home/mary
[root@server1 mary]# pwd
/home/mary
[root@server1 mary]#_
You can also use one dot (.) to refer to the current directory.
Although this is not useful when using the cd command, you do
use one dot later in this book.
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