Back Command

UNIX for Beginners Q & A UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers
1

I'm pretty new to UNIX and was wondering what is the Unix command for going back one directory?

2

cd ..

3

Pick up a book called "Unix In A Nutshell" by O'Reilly. Great command syntax book to have. Until then, a few more useful commands:

Print (current) working directory name
pwd
Pathname seperator
/
Working directory's pathname
.
Parent directory's pathname	
..
List working directory's contents
ls
List working directory's contents using long list file information
ls -l
List working directory's contents one page at a time
(push space or next page)
ls -1 | more ("less" for linux systems)
List directory contents at pathname
ls pathname
Change Directory: Changing the current directory to your home
directory
cd
Change Directory: Change directory to pathname
cd pathname
Permission: Set access permissions for a file or directory at pathname
chmod permissions pathname
Copy file "original" to file "duplicate"
cp original duplicate
Move/rename file old to file new
mv old new
Delete file
rm filename
Remove an empty directory at pathname
rmdir pathname
Find location of files or folders, searching from the top of the
directory tree, using rules (see man find)
find top rules
4

I added an item in our FAQ section that has links to some on-line unix tutorials. They're not a replacement for that book google mentioned, but if you're struggling with "cd .." they will move you forward. That faq post is here.