Current directory in linux terminal

How to show the full path of a file or directory in the terminal?

I need to know how the directory name in order to type it out in the terminal. How do I access the names of directories? Windows Explorer used to have a title bar with the full path. Can someone please help me figure out how to see the full path of a certain file?

If you know the path and need to type it out quickly, nothing is better than Tab completion, especially with zsh .

I figured out a way to delete files with BleachBit, thanks for your answer. But for the other query I still need to know how to see the FULL path of any certain file or folder.

3 Answers 3

If you are using nautilus to browse your files, you can toggle the navigation bar by pressing Ctrl + L .

If you are using the terminal, just use pwd to know the absolute path of your current location.

And don’t forget that space characters need to be escaped within the terminal. If you want to access /path/to/the force then you need to do cd /path/to/the\ force .

To display the full path of a file in the terminal just drag the file’s icon into the terminal, and the full path of the file will be displayed enclosed by two apostrophes (single quotation mark characters). It’s that simple.

In Ubuntu 20.04 and later drag and drop of files or directories doesn’t work from the desktop, but does work in other locations including dragging from the desktop in Files file manager.

find can do this quite handily from the terminal. Here’s an example in which I’m looking for the full path of the file Taxes-2013.pdf:

sudo find / -name Taxes-2013.pdf

/home/me/Documents/Taxes-2013.pdf 

I’m using sudo so that I can avoid all the permission denied output that I would otherwise get with find when searching from the root of the tree.

If you just want the pathname and want the filename stripped off you can use

sudo find / -name Taxes-2013.pdf | xargs -n1 dirname

Note: If you are in the habit of putting spaces in names this is relevant to you.

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Bash Get Current Directory

In Linux, all tasks done through the command line require users to access adequate directories. There are different types of directories in a computer system with Linux or Ubuntu OS. Users can access each directory through the terminal, and interact with them. There are multiple options, and each time users interact with the command prompt of the current directory they are working.

The Linux system responds by providing information against each input request. The achieved output is standard and printed to the shell prompt. In this tutorial, we will dig deep into the ways of accessing the current working directory and how users can switch from one directory or location to another, followed by relevant examples. The command used for accessing the current working directory will help them access any location in their system anytime, as per their requirements.

Requirements

Following system requirements are mandatory to run the commands in the bash to get directory:

Recommended OS: Linux Mint 20 or Ubuntu 20.04
User account: A user account with sudo rights

The tutorial assumes that users already have the latest Linux Mint OS on their computer systems. For bash, get the current directory in Linux Mint 20, open up the Terminal from the main menu on the bottom left of your screen, and then select the Terminal option.

To interact with the terminal, type bash and then press enter.

It will display a prompt, which shows that Bash is waiting for the value of the input.

Note: It all depends on the user’s computer system that they might get a different prompted character (The current location in the file structure of the computer system including the working directory that is currently running on the system). While entering the commands, don’t type $ or any other character before the command. Also, notice that in the examples mentioned in this tutorial, the lines that have a prompt in them, and don’t begin with $ character, are the outputs of each command.

PWD (Print working directory)

The current working directory is the directory where all of the commands are being executed. You need to get the name of the current working directory printed. Type PWD command and then click enter. It will show the complete directory in the output, as shown below:

The above output shows that we are currently in the user’s directory, i.e., /home/aqsa. The command used here is PWD, a print working directory, and once typed, the Linux Mint 20 system is requested to display the current location. The default directory is the home directory that will appear when the users start a new Bash session.

Note: To exit the directory by one level, type cd .. and then click enter. You will be returned in one directory.

Whereas, if you want to exit all directories, simply type cd, then click enter. You will reach the default directory.

CD (Change current working directory)

Sometimes users want to switch from one directory to another to access the relevant locations and files in another directory. For this, they need to use the CD command, then followed by a location or a directory, e.g., Documents, Home, etc.

Simply type the CD directory name and then click enter. You can print your directory to check this new path. The working directory can be changed to the existing one, and the current working directory will be updated, as shown in the example below. Here, we have reached the home directory.

You can also move further in any directory by typing the CD Directory Name and then hit enter. This will further take you to the location, which is looking-for. Users can try entering the whole path as well in one go, e.g., cd /home/documents/test.docx; this will save them from trying multiple steps and will help them in reaching the location in one go.

Note: You can also see the list of all files present in the location in which you are currently present. It can be completed by simply typing ls, then, you can press enter to see the output.

Display or list all directories

Knowing the list of all directories is one important thing while working on Linux systems. The users can check out different options based on the directories they are currently working in and would want to switch between them, so they can make use of these locations.

To display all directories from a particular location, try the command as below:

Here, in the example below, the user is in its home directory, so it will display the relevant directory, which is named as “aqsa listed” and “currently in use”.

Note: You can also use a combination of ls and grep commands that will list down the directory names. For this, users can use the find command. Following are a few commands that can also be used in place of the command mentioned above:

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we explored different options to get the current directory using Bash in Linux Mint 20. In this way, users can access the current directory in Linux or Ubuntu based on the system they are using. The various command-line options are discussed to let users know how to get the current directory they are working in. The current working directory is the directory from which users invoke different kinds of commands from their terminal or console line. They can access different locations by simply typing these easy commands in one go and then perform relevant actions in the locations they tend to work in.

About the author

Aqsa Yasin

I am a self-motivated information technology professional with a passion for writing. I am a technical writer and love to write for all Linux flavors and Windows.

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Linux pwd Command

The pwd is a helpful command for Linux users who are inexperienced and might get lost in the middle of directories.

The pwd is an abbreviated form of “Print Working Directory,” or we can call the Current Work Directory. It displays the name of the current directory with the root path.

It is the most frequently used built-in shell command by Linux system administrators.

PWD Syntax

The Syntax of pwd Command is:

PWD Commands

Here are a few most commonly used commands of pwd. Let’s check how they work in Linux System:

Display Current Directory

As my current working directory is the home directory, so it will print the home directory in the terminal.

To display the current working directory in Linux, use the command:

PWD Flags

The pwd command accepts two flags:

1. pwd –L
The -L flag is used to print symbolic links; in other words, in Linux, it points towards the file or folder where you are currently working in.

Let’s check its functionality:

Create a symbolic link in a home directory named Linuxhint and move the present directory to the newly created one.

Now, use the given command to check if it’s working:

2. pwd –P:
The -P command is used to print the actual path without any symbolic link.

pwd Version

The pwd command comes pre-installed. You can check the pwd version through the command-line by given command:

pwd -a

The following command will help you to display the list of all locations having executable name pwd:

pwd Help

When you use the help command, it will show you pwd command options.

To get it, use mentioned command in the terminal:

Echo $PWD

To store the path of the current directory, the echo $PWD command is used. It functions the same as the pwd –L command:

PWD and OLDPWD command

To get current and previous directory using one command, type:

Conclusion

We have seen a brief explanation of the pwd command and its examples. The pwd command is a widely used shell built-in command in Linux systems. It displays the current working directory on which the user is working.

About the author

Syeda Wardah Batool

I am a Software Engineer Graduate and Self Motivated Linux writer. I also love to read latest Linux books. Moreover, in my free time, i love to read books on Personal development.

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