The-Unix-Shell-Teaching-Notes

2.3 Absolute vs Relative Paths

Starting from /Users/amanda/data, which of the following commands could Amanda use to navigate to her home directory, which is /Users/amanda?

1. cd .
2. cd /
3. cd /home/amanda
4. cd ../..
5. cd ~
6. cd home
7. cd ~/data/..
8. cd
9. cd ..

Solution

1. No: `.` stands for the current directory.
2. No: `/` stands for the root directory.
3. No: Amanda's home directory is `/Users/amanda`.
4. No: this goes up two levels, i.e. ends in `/Users`.
5. Yes: `~` stands for the user's home directory, in this case `/Users/amanda`.
6. No: this would navigate into a directory `home` in the current directory if it exists.
7. Yes: unnecessarily complicated, but correct.
8. Yes: shortcut to go back to the user's home directory.
9. Yes: goes up one level.

Episode 2 Exercise 4