BeginnerShell basics

Navigating the Filesystem

Move through directories with cd, understand absolute vs relative paths, and use ls flags to see more detail.

BashBeginner10 min read

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Hello, Shell!

By the end of this lesson you will be able to:

Use cd to move between directories
Explain the difference between absolute and relative paths
Use . and .. to navigate relative to the current directory
Use ~ to return home from anywhere
Use ls flags to see hidden files and detailed metadata

After hello-shell you know where you are (pwd) and what's around you (ls). Now let's move. Navigating the filesystem is the skill that makes everything else in the shell practical — you need to be in the right place to run most commands.

Absolute vs relative paths

Every file and directory on your computer has a path — a string that describes where it lives. Paths come in two flavors.

An absolute path starts from the root of the filesystem. On Linux and macOS, that root is /:

/home/alice/projects/my-app
/usr/local/bin/python3

A relative path starts from wherever you currently are. If you're in /home/alice, then:

projects/my-app       # same as /home/alice/projects/my-app
../bob/documents      # go up one level, then into bob/documents

The shell knows the difference: anything starting with / is absolute; anything else is relative.

Why does this matter? Scripts and configuration files that use absolute paths work from anywhere but break when you move files. Relative paths are portable within a project but depend on where you run them from. Both have their place — knowing the difference lets you choose deliberately.

cd — change directory

cd is the most-used navigation command. Give it a path and the shell moves there:

cd /tmp             # absolute — go to /tmp from anywhere
cd projects         # relative — go into the projects folder inside the current directory
cd ..               # go up one level (the parent directory)
cd ../..            # go up two levels
cd ~                # go to your home directory from anywhere
cd -                # go back to the previous directory (very handy)

After each cd, run pwd to confirm where you ended up. That feedback loop — move, verify — is a good habit that prevents many "but I thought I was in…" mistakes.

. and ..

These two special entries exist in every directory:

. refers to the current directory itself. You'll see it used in commands like cp file.txt . (copy a file to the current location).
.. refers to the parent directory. cd .. goes up one level.

pwd            # /home/alice/projects
cd ..          # now in /home/alice
cd ..          # now in /home
ls .           # lists files in the current directory (same as ls)
ls ..          # lists files in the parent directory

~ and the home directory

Your home directory is your personal workspace — it's where your documents, configuration files, and projects typically live. The tilde ~ is a shortcut for it:

cd ~           # go home
cd ~/projects  # go directly to ~/projects from anywhere
echo ~         # prints the full path of your home directory, e.g. /home/alice

The shell expands ~ before running the command, so ~/projects becomes /home/alice/projects (or wherever your home is). This expansion happens reliably — you can always trust ~ to mean "home."

ls flags

ls on its own shows file and directory names. Flags unlock more detail, including file permissions:

ls -l          # long format: permissions, owner, size, date, name
ls -a          # all files, including hidden ones (names starting with .)
ls -la         # combine both: long format plus hidden files
ls -lh         # long format with human-readable sizes (1.2K instead of 1234)
ls /tmp        # list a specific directory without cd-ing there first

Hidden files (.bashrc, .gitignore, .env) are everywhere in developer work. They're hidden only from the default ls view — use ls -a whenever you suspect something is missing.

Tab completion: The shell can complete paths for you. Type the first few letters of a directory name and press Tab. If there's only one match, the shell completes it. If there are multiple, press Tab again to see them listed. This is faster than typing and catches typos before they become errors. It works for commands, flags, and file paths.

Check your understanding

Do it yourself

Try this sequence in your terminal:

cd ~           # start from home
pwd            # confirm where you are
ls -la         # see everything including hidden files
cd /tmp        # jump to an absolute path
pwd
cd -           # jump back to where you were
pwd            # you should be back in ~

Then navigate into one of your project directories using a mix of cd with relative paths and tab completion. Get comfortable with cd .. to back up and cd - to return.

Where to go next

You can now move anywhere in the filesystem confidently. Next: files and directories — creating, copying, moving, and deleting files and folders with touch, mkdir, cp, mv, and rm.

Finished reading? Mark it complete to track your progress.

Hello, Shell!

What a shell is, how to open a terminal, and your first real commands — echo, pwd, ls, and whoami.

Files and Directories

Create, copy, move, and delete files and directories with touch, mkdir, cp, mv, rm, and rmdir.