13.3. Determining Your Current Directory with
pwd
Once you start looking through directories, it is easy to get lost
or forget the name of your current directory. By default, the Bash
prompt in Red Hat Linux shows just your current directory, not the entire path.
To determine the exact location of the current directory at a shell
prompt and type the command pwd.
You will see something such as:
This example shows that you are in the user sam's
directory, which is in the /home directory.
The command pwd stands for print working
directory. When you typed pwd, you asked your Linux
system to display your current location. Your system responded by
printing the full path of the current directory in the shell prompt
window. When the system responds to requests for information, the
response is called standard output, and can be
printed to the shell prompt or can be redirected to other programs or to
other output devices such as printers.
You will find that using pwd is very helpful as
you learn to navigate your Red Hat Linux system.
