Understanding pathnames
First type cd to get back to your home-directory, then type
% ls unixstuff
to list the conents of your unixstuff directory.
Now type
% ls backups
You will get a message like this -
backups: No such file or directory
The reason is, backups is not in your current working directory. To use a command on a file (or directory) not in the current working directory (the directory you are currently in), you must either cd to the correct directory, or specify its full pathname. To list the contents of your backups directory, you must type
% ls unixstuff/backups
~ (your home directory)
Home directories can also be referred to by the tilde ~ character. It can be used to specify paths starting at your home directory. So typing
% ls ~/unixstuff
will list the contents of your unixstuff directory, no matter where you currently are in the file system.
What do you think
% ls ~
would list?
What do you think
% ls ~/..
would list?
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