command

meaning

% cd

to change the current working directory to be your home directory using absolute addressing

% cd /

to change the current working directory to be the root directory using absolute addressing

% cd ~jplane

to change the current working directory to be the home of the user with login id jplane using absolute addressing

% cd ..

to change the current working directory to be the parent of the directory  that was current before the command was given using relative addressing

% cd this/that

to change the current working directory to be the directory named that which is the child of the directory named this which is the child of the directory which was current before the command was given - this also uses relative addressing

% pwd

will display something similar to

/usr/homes/jplane/this/that

which would mean the current directory is named that which is a child of this which is a child of jplane which is a child of homes which is a child of usr which is a child of the root directory

% more file1

to display the content of the file in the current directory known as file1

% more dir1/file1

to display the content of file1 which is a child of the directory dir1 which is a child of the current directory.

% more ../file1

to display the content of file1 which is a child of the directory which is the parent of the current directory

% rm this

to delete this which is a child of the current directory

% rm ../that

to delete that which is a child of the directory which is the parent of the current directory

% rm this/that

to delete that which is a child of the directory this which a child of the current directory

% cp f1 f2

to duplicate the contents of the file f1 in the file f2

% cp f1 d1

to duplicate the contents of the file f1 in the file d1

% cp f1 d1/f2

to duplicate the contents of the file f1 in the file f2 which is a child of the directory d1 which is a child of the current directory.

 % mv f1 f2

moves the contents of f1 into f2

 % mv f1 ../dir2/f1

moves the contents of f1 into f2 which is a child of the directory dir2 which is a child of the parent directory of the current directory

 % mkdir new.dir

to create a new directory called new.dir

 % mkdir ~/old.dir/new.dir

to create a new directory called new.dir which is a child of old.dir which is in the home of the user

 % rmdir dir1

to remove the directory dir1 which is a child of the current working directory

 % rmdir ../old.dir

to remove the directory old.dir which is a child of the parent directory of the current directory