Datasheet

648
Working with Files
Similarly, a folder named myFolder that resides in the current user’s
Documents folder would have a path like this:
~/Documents/myFolder/
As you’ve probably surmised, a folder and a directory are two different
names for the same thing. Folder is the name with which most Mac users are
familiar, and directory is a term that UNIX power users prefer. I use the terms
interchangeably throughout the remainder of the chapter.
Because Mac OS X is a multiuser environment, you might sometimes want
to work with folders or files somewhere other than in your Home folder.
Starting from your Home folder, enter the following command:
cd ..
This moves you to the folder right above your Home folder, which happens
to be the Users folder. Using another quick ls command will show you all
users who are permitted to use the machine. (By the way, Shared isn’t a
user — it’s a folder with privileges set so that any user can access its
contents.)
Enter cd .. once again, and you find yourself at the root of your main hard
drive. The root directory is what you see in the Finder when you double-click
your hard drive icon on the Desktop. A user’s Home directory is represented
by a tilde character (~), and the root of the hard drive is denoted by a forward
slash (/), as displayed by the prompt:
WHITEDRAGON:/ markchambers$
It’s easy to return to your Home directory by following this sequence:
WHITEDRAGON:/ markchambers$ cd Users
WHITEDRAGON:/Users markchambers$ cd markchambers
WHITEDRAGON:~ markchambers$
Here’s a faster way. Instead of moving through each successive folder until
you reach your intended destination, you can specify the path by using just
one cd command:
WHITEDRAGON:/ markchambers$ cd /Users/markchambers
WHITEDRAGON:~ markchambers$
Of course, the Home directory is a special folder in that you can also
navigate there by simply entering cd ~, but the main point here is that
you can navigate directly to specific folders by using that folder’s path in
conjunction with the cd command.
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