The file system is responsible for managing information on the disk.
Information is stored in files, which are stored in directories (folders).
Directories can also store other directories, which forms a directory tree.
cd path
changes the current working directory.
ls path
prints a listing of a specific file or directory; ls
on its own lists the current working directory.
pwd
prints the user’s current working directory.
/
on its own is the root directory of the whole file system.
A relative path specifies a location starting from the current location.
An absolute path specifies a location from the root of the file system.
Directory names in a path are separated with /
on Unix, but \
on Windows.
..
means ‘the directory above the current one’; .
on its own means ‘the current directory’.
Most files’ names are something.extension
. The extension isn’t required, and doesn’t guarantee anything, but is normally used to indicate the type of data in the file.