Finding your way: where am I, what's here, go there

🏠The everyday picture

Imagine walking through a big office building blindfolded, with a friend who answers three questions: "Which room am I in?", "What's in this room?" and "Take me to the next room". With those three, you can reach anywhere. The terminal gives you exactly those three questions.

📘What it really is

Question	Command	Example
Where am I?	`pwd` (print working directory)	`/home/asha`
What's here?	`ls` (list)	`Documents Downloads notes.txt`
Go there	`cd` (change directory)	`cd Documents`

Some helpers:

ls -l shows a longer list with sizes and dates. The -l is an option: an extra instruction for the command.
cd .. goes up one folder. cd ~ (or just cd) goes back to your home folder.
mkdir shop makes a new folder called shop.
Folders and files are separated by / in a path: /home/asha/Documents/shop.
Names are case-sensitive. Shop and shop are two different folders in Linux.
Press Tab to finish a name for you, and the up arrow to bring back your last command.

📝A worked example

$ pwd
/home/asha
$ mkdir shop
$ cd shop
$ pwd
/home/asha/shop
$ ls
$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/asha

The $ is the prompt: the terminal waiting for you. You don't type it. ls inside the new, empty shop folder printed nothing, which is correct: there's nothing there yet.

🖱️Try it

Type pwd to see where you start.
Make a folder called practice, go into it, and check with pwd.
Inside it, make two folders, photos and letters, then type ls to see them.
Go back up with cd ... Then type cd prac and press Tab: the terminal finishes the name for you.

✅Quick check

You type cd Letters and get "No such file or directory", but ls shows letters. Why?

Show the answer

Linux names are case-sensitive. Letters and letters are different, so type the name exactly: cd letters.

You're lost deep inside folders. Which command takes you straight home?