In what directory will the command cd .. not do anything at all?
Last Updated on Friday, 01 April 2011 18:23
Question:
In what directory will the command 'cd ..' (note the two dots in this command) not do anything at all?
Answer:
In root directory "/".
Since the .. directory points to a parent directory and / ( root directory ) is on the top of the file system hierarchy standard and therefore it does not have a parent directory, the "cd .." command will not do anything at all. We may also say that / directory is a parent directory of itself. Try:
$ cd / $ pwd / $ cd .. $ pwd /
Long Answer:
Every directory in the linux file system contains two special directories and they are:
- "." a current working directory
- ".." a parent directory
To see these special directories enter command:
ls -a
Current working directory "." points to itself.
Examples:
The command below will copy a file from /tmp directory to a current working directory:
cp /tmp/file .
Ore check disk space mounted below my current working directory:
df -h .
Parent directory ".." points to a directory one above my current working directory.
Examples:
Use a symbolic path to navigate to different directory in the same parent directory:
$ pwd /tmp $ cd ../etc/ $ pwd /etc
Navigate two directories above my current directory:
$ pwd /etc/terminfo $ cd ../.. $ pwd /
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