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Development Tools Console Foundations Getting Started with the Console Moving and Deleting Files

Posted by Amber Cyr
Amber Cyr
19,699 Points

Getting back to the home directory

So in the video, Jim shows that you can get back into the home directory by using cd .. or cd ~, however I found that if you just type cd and press enter it does the same thing. Is there a reason you should use cd .. or cd ~ over just cd?

1 Answer

Shawn Boyd
Shawn Boyd
14,345 Points
Shawn Boyd
Shawn Boyd
14,345 Points

'cd' alone does do the same thing as 'cd ~' but not 'cd ..'. 'cd ..' moves you up one directory which, depending on where you are, may or may not land you in your home. There are many ways to get back to your home directory - 'cd', 'cd ~', 'cd ~/', 'cd $HOME', etc. . I would expect the reason 'cd' by itself wasn't taught in this lesson was a pedagogical decision. It's more clear to introduce it as always taking an argument and include exceptions further on.