15 Essential Directory Commands in Linux / Unix
In this tutorial, you will find the 15 essential linux commands about directory. This page provides the detailed examples of each directory command in linux.
1. mkdir command
- This command is used to create a new directory in the linux terminal
- It takes only one argument which is the name of the directory name
Usages
- Directory creation
- Sub directory creation with help of -p option
Syntax
mkdir directoryname
Where,
directoryname is a user defined name.
Example
Sub-directories creation
- With the help of option -p, we can create multiple sub-directories under a directory.
Syntax
mkdir -p existing_directoryname/sd
mkdir -p existing_directoryname/{sd1, sd2, sd3, sd4, …sdn}
Where,
-p indicates parents (parent directory)
existing_directoryname is a name of existing directory name
sd is a name of sub-directory
sd1, sd2,sd3,…sd4 are names of newly created sub directories under the parent directory.
Example
2. rmdir command
- This command is used to remove (delete) an empty directory
- It takes only one argument which is the name of the existing empty directory name
Drawbacks
- It is not possible to remove a non empty directory
- Directory should not be current directory
Syntax
rmdir exising_directoryname
Where,
exising_directoryname is the name of an already created directory.
Example – Removing Empty Directory
3. pwd command
- This command is used to display the path of present working directory (current working directory)
Syntax
pwd
Example
4. ls command
- This command is used to display the files and folders in current working directory
- This command is also used to list the files in the specified input directory
Syntax
ls // list files in current directory
ls directory-name // list files in mentioned input directory
Example 1 – Listing files and subfolders in current (present) directory
Example 2 – Listing files and subfolders in specified directory
5. find command (Search for files and directories)
- This command is also used to display the files and folders in the current working directory or user specified directory using the options d and f.
- Using option f, this command is used to list only files in current directory or specified directory including sub-directories
- Using option d, this command is used to list only subdirectories in current directory or specified directory
Syntax
find directorypath -type d
find directorypath -type f
Where,
Directorypath can be the path of the current working directory or user specified directory.
Example 1 – Displaying only all files from user specified directory named test5
Example 2- Displaying only directories from user specified directory named test5
6. cd command
- cd stands for change directory
- Quickly switch between the current and previous directories.
- This command is used to change the path from current directory to path of target directory (location)
Syntax
cd directory-path // move from current path to user specified directory path
cd .. // move from current path to its parent directory
Example – Moving path from current directory to user specified directory named test5
7. tree command
- This command is used to display the files and folders in current working directory in the tree order (hierarchical order)
- By default, it will list both files and subfolders in the current directory
- If you want to print only subdirectories, then use option -d
Syntax
tree // list files and folders in current directory
tree-d // list only subfolders in current directory
tree directory-name // list files and folders in user specified directory
Example 1 – Displaying files and folders in current directory
Example 2 – Displaying only subfolders in current directory
Example 3 – Displaying files and folders in user specified directory
8. dir command
- This is alternative to ls command
- Like ls command, this command is used to display the files and folders in current working directory
- This command is also used to list the files in the specified input directory
Syntax
dir // list files in current directory
dir directory-name // list files in mentioned input directory
Example 1 – Listing files and subfolders in current (present) directory
Example 2 – Listing files and subfolders in user specified directory named test5
9. cp command
- Generally, cp command can be used for both file copying as well as directory copying
- Using cp command with option -r (recursively), we can copy the contents of one directory into another directory
Syntax
cp src_directorypath target_directorypath // copy files to source to target directory
Example
10. echo command
- Typically, echo command is used to display the message on terminal
- With pattern *, it is used to display files and folders in current directory or user specified directory
Syntax
echo * // list files and folders in current directory
echo directory-path/* // list all files in user specified directory using the option /*. Here / indicates the level of directory.
Example 1 – Listing files and folders in current directory
Example 2 – Listing files and folders in user specified directory named test5
11. stat command
- stat stands for status about file
- This command is used to display the complete detailed information about a file or directory like file-name, file-size (in bytes), number of links, blocks, file-type, Inode number, etc,.
Syntax
stat file // display detailed the information about file
Stat directory-name // display the detailed information about a file
Example
12. realpath command
- This command is used to display the absolute path of a file or directory
Syntax
realpath file // display the absolute path of an input file
realpath dir // display the absolute path of an input directory
Example 1 – Displaying the absolute path of given file
Example 2 – Displaying the absolute path of input directory named test5
13. mktemp command
- This command is used to quickly create a temporary file or directory in the current directory
- Using option -d, it will create a temporary directory
Syntax
mktemp -d // create a temporary directory
realpath dir // display the absolute path of an input directory
Example – Creating a temporary directory
14. du command
- This command is used to display the space usage of file or directory
- Here the file or directory can be current or user specified file or directory
Syntax
du file // display the usage about given file
du directory-name // display the usage about given directory
Example – Listing the space usage about file as well as directory named cy1.txt and test5
15. mv command
- mv stands for move
- This command is used for moving a file / directory from one location to another location
- This command is also used to renaming a file / directory
- This command can be used for both moving as well as renaming a file or directory.
Syntax
mv src_file target_file // rename source file with target file name
mv src_directory target_directory // rename source directory with target directory name
Example – Renaming source directory named dd to target directory named dd1
