Chapter 3. Moving About the File System

This third hour focuses on the Unix hierarchical file system. You learn how the system is organized, how it differs from the Macintosh and Windows hierarchical file systems, the difference between relative and absolute filenames, and the mysterious . and .. directories. You also learn about the env, pwd, and cd commands and the HOME and PATH environment variables.

Goals for This Hour

In this hour, you will learn

  • What a hierarchical file system is all about

  • How the Unix file system is organized

  • How Mac and PC file systems differ from Unix

  • The difference between relative and absolute filenames

  • About hidden files in Unix

  • About the special directories . and ..

  • About the env command

  • About user environment variables,

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