Relative Pathnames
When we first looked at the AFS file tree we talked about building absolute paths or directions to a file or directory that you are wanting to work with. UNIX/Linux systems recognize some special character combinations known as relative pathnames. You can use these paths for shortcuts instead of typing the whole path (ie. /afs/unity.ncsu.edu....).
| ~/ | The ~/ (tilde slash) can be used to refer to your home directory. The ~ actually is replaced with /afs/unity.ncsu.edu/users/y/yourhome when it is evaluated. It saves a little typing. |
| .. | .. (dot dot) refers the the directory above the current working directory. A directory located directly above your current working directory is considered the parent directory. This can be used in conjunction with other shortcuts. For example, if Joe Schmoe wanted to refer to the j directory above his home directory he could use the pathname ~/.. (which is still shorter). |
| . | . (dot) refers to the current working directory. Instead of having to type the whole pathname, you can use dot, which is often useful when you are dealing with things in your current working directory. |
Example
If your current working directory is MyE115 in the tree to the below, what is the path to inbox in the .elm directory?
The path can be expressed as any of the following:
../.elm/inbox~/.elm/inbox./../.elm/inbox
