I am using Precise pangolin. As far as I know, commands like
cd..or
cd-are used to browse through folders in the terminal.
But whenever I enter one of this commands, it gives an error saying no such command or filename found. Do I have to perform any additional task before I use commands involving cd?
3 Answers
Common Commands
View Directories: ls
The ls (LiSt) lists files in different colors with full formatted text
Create Directories: mkdir (directory name)
The mkdir (MaKeDIRectory) command will create a directory.
Change Directories: cd (/directory/location)
The cd (ChangeDirectory) command will change from your current directory to any directory you specify.
Copy Files/Directories: cp (file or directory name) (to directory or filename)
The cp (CoPy) command will copy any files you specify. The cp -r command will copy any directories you specify.
Remove Files/Directories: rm (file or directory name)
The rm (ReMove) command will delete any filename you specify. The rm -r command will remove any directory you specify.
Rename Files/Directories: mv (file or directory name)
The mv (MoVe) command will rename/move any file or directory you specify.
Find Files/Directories: locate (file or directory name)
to go back to previous directory: cd ..(cd [space] ..)
just for extra information
source from
To browse directories you use cd dirname. So if you're in your Home and you want to go to Downloads you type cd Downloads ,if you want to go to a folder inside it you do the same again cd subFolder. If you want to go to a specific folder you type cd Downloads/subfolder/folder2/.
If you're in another folder that isn't inside your Home folder structure but want to go to a folder inside of it (Home) you add this character ~ so it's something like this:
user@user-desktop:etc/$ cd ~/Downloads/subFolder/folder2/
user@user-desktop:~/Downloads/subFolder/folder2/$
That will take you directly to a folder inside your Home structure because of the ~.
To return to your Home you just type cd. To go up 1 directory you type cd ..
Make sure that you do put space between cd and .. like this cd ..
cd represents change directory.
cd .. is used to go back from child directory to parent directory.
You can check your current directory using pwd (present working directory).
Type ls -l it will list all the files and directory. Use cd
and you will be directed in specified directory.
for more help type man cd
