Special Paths

• /: root directory - where it all begins

• ~: home directory of the user

  $ id -u
  1000
  $ id -un
  jfasch
  $ pwd
  /etc
  $ cd ~
  $ pwd
  /home/jfasch
  

• ~someone-else: home directory of someone else

• .: current working directory

  $ pwd
  /home/jfasch
  $ cd .
  $ pwd
  /home/jfasch
  

• ..: parent directory of CWD

  $ cd ..
  $ pwd
  /home
  

  $ ls -l
  total 0
  drwx------. 1 jfasch       jfasch       554 Mar  8 10:51 jfasch
  drwx------. 1 someone-else someone-else  92 Mar  3 14:12 someone-else
  

  . and .. are regular path components …

  $ cd ~jfasch/../someone-else
  $ pwd
  /home/someone-else