cd Command: Tutorial & Examples

Change the current directory

The cd (change directory) command is a shell builtin that allows you to navigate between directories on a Linux system.

To use the cd command, you simply type cd followed by the name of the directory you want to move to. For example, to navigate to the /home/user/documents directory, you would type:

cd /home/user/documents

If you want to navigate to a subdirectory within the current directory, you can simply specify the subdirectory name. For example, if you are currently in the /home/user directory and you want to navigate to the documents subdirectory, you can type:

cd documents

There are also several special directories that you can use with the cd command to quickly navigate around the file system. For example:

• . (a single period) refers to the current directory

• .. (two periods) refers to the parent directory of the current directory

• ~ (a tilde) refers to the home directory of the current user

• For example, if you are currently in the /home/user/documents directory and you want to navigate to the /home/user directory, you can type:

  cd ..

Or, if you want to navigate to your home directory, you can type:

cd ~