Navigating the filesystem

A filesystem is a tree of directories, and every file sits somewhere on it. Here you learn to name any spot on that tree and move to it. You also build your own branches and search them. The terminal stops being a mystery and becomes a place you know.

What you'll be able to do

• Tell an absolute path from a relative path.
• Use ., .., ~ and cd - to move around quickly.
• Read a long listing and understand every column.
• Create nested directories with mkdir -p.
• Find files by name and by type with find, and view a tree with tree.

Step 1: Absolute and relative paths

An absolute path starts at the root, written as a forward slash, and spells out the whole route. A relative path starts from where you are.

$ cd /data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects
$ pwd
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects

Move next with a relative path. This one names a directory next to you, with no leading slash.

$ cd notes
$ pwd
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects/notes

Step 2: The dots and the tilde

A single dot . means the directory you are in. Two dots .. mean the one a level up.

$ cd ..
$ pwd
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects

The tilde ~ always means your home directory, wherever you are.

$ cd ~
$ pwd
/data/data/com.termux/files/home

There is also cd -. It returns you to the previous directory and prints where it took you.

$ cd ~/projects
$ cd -
/data/data/com.termux/files/home

Step 3: Reading a long listing

A plain ls gives you names only. Add -l for a long listing with the details.

$ cd ~
$ mkdir -p projects/notes
$ printf 'buy milk\ncall plumber\n' > projects/notes/todo.txt
$ ls -l projects/notes
total 4
-rw------- 1 u0_a123 u0_a123 26 Jan 12 09:15 todo.txt

Read the line from left to right. -rw------- is the permission string, where the leading dash means a plain file. The 1 is the link count. Then come the owner and group, both u0_a123 here. Then the size in bytes, 26. Then the date, then the name.

Add -h to make sizes human readable, so large files show as kilobytes or megabytes.

$ ls -lh /data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin
total 26M
-rwx------ 1 u0_a123 u0_a123  35K Jan  1 00:00 awk
-rwx------ 1 u0_a123 u0_a123 111K Jan  1 00:00 bash
...

That listing is abridged. The sizes now read as 35K and 111K rather than long byte counts. Add -a to include hidden files, or -R to list subdirectories as well.

$ ls -R projects
projects:
notes

projects/notes:
todo.txt

Step 4: Making directories

mkdir makes a directory. With -p it creates every missing directory in the path. It stays quiet if the directory already exists.

$ mkdir -p work/logs/2026
$ ls -R work
work:
logs

work/logs:
2026

work/logs/2026:

Without -p, mkdir work/logs/2026 would fail. The path work/logs did not exist yet.

Step 5: Finding files

find searches a directory tree. Give it a starting directory, then a test. Here -name matches a file name.

$ find ~ -name "todo.txt"
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects/notes/todo.txt

Add -type f to match plain files only, or -type d for directories only.

$ find ~ -type f -name "*.txt"
/data/data/com.termux/files/home/projects/notes/todo.txt

For a picture of a small tree, install tree.

$ pkg install tree
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  tree
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Setting up tree ...

Then run it on your home directory.

$ tree ~
/data/data/com.termux/files/home
├── projects
│   └── notes
│       └── todo.txt
└── work
    └── logs
        └── 2026

5 directories, 1 file

Quick reference

Command	What it does
pwd	Print the full path of the current directory
cd PATH	Change to the directory at the given path
cd ..	Move up one level
cd -	Return to the previous directory
ls -l	Long listing with details
ls -a	Include hidden files
ls -h	Human readable sizes, with -l
ls -R	List subdirectories as well
mkdir -p PATH	Create a directory and any missing parents
find DIR -name PATTERN	Find entries by name
find DIR -type f	Find plain files only
tree DIR	Show a directory tree

Next steps

Now that you can reach any file, learn to read what sits inside it in Reading and searching text. To join commands and save their output, continue to Pipes and redirection. For practice with real files, try Logs Never Lie.