[Novalug] Elementory command line question

[Clif Flynt]

On Sun, Feb 21, 2010 at 01:02:32AM -0500, cmhowe at patriot.net wrote:
> List,
> 
> I verify, using
> 
>   ls -l ./chasmhowe/*
> ...
>   cp: target '/chasmhowe/' is not a target
> 
> What should I do? Bonus points for explaining why.
> 

  The file system is 'tree structured' starting from a root at "/".

  So, the parent folder is /, the next folders are children of "/",
and are named things like "/home", "/usr", etc.

  Each time you step into a folder that's a child of another
folder, you add a "/" and the name of the new folder to the
full path.
  
  You're home folder is probably "/home/chasmhowe", and subfolders in
that folder are things like "/home/chasmhowe/Mail/" and
"/home/chasmhowe/Desktop".  Inside "/home/chasmhowe/Mail" is probably
folders like "/home/chasmhowe/Mail/clif" and "/home/chasmhowe/Mail/lugwash".

  As you can see, the full name for the files are getting long and
unwieldy.

  If there is no leading slash in the filename, it's considered to
be a "relative" path, not a "full" path.

  It's relative to whatever your current working directory is - ie,
where your shell considers "here".  

  You can view your current working directory with the "pwd" command:
(Stands for Print Working Directory).

%> pwd
/home/clif

  When you log in, your working directory is probably your home directory.
When you first open a terminal session, and type "pwd" you'll probably
see something like:
"/home/chasmhowe"

  Then, because computer types are lazy, we get to shortcuts -
  
  ~     (tilde) is your home - ls ~/Mail will display the contents of 
        the mail folder in your home.

  .     (the period) is the current directory.  "ls ." and "ls " are
        identical

  ..    (two periods) are the parent directory.  If you are in your
        home directory (/home/chasmhowe) and type "ls ..", you'll see
        the contents of the /home folder.
  
  So, getting back to the question - /chasmhowe probably does not exist.
The folder that probably exists is "/home/chasmhowe".  And you don't need
a lot of the "./" that you've been typing.

  Hope this helps,
  Clif

-- 
... Clif Flynt ... http://www.cwflynt.com ... clif at cflynt.com ...
.. Tcl/Tk: A Developer's Guide (2nd edition) - Morgan Kauffman ..
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