The_Official_Raspberry_Pi_-_Beginner’s_Book_Vol1,_2018 (1)

224 THE OFFICIAL RASPBERRY PI BEGINNER'S GUIDE

You’ll see the prompt change to:

pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop $

That shows you that your current working directory has changed: you were in your home

directory before, indicated by the ~ symbol, and now you’re in the Desktop subdirectory

underneath your home directory. To do that, you used the cd command – change directory.

There are four ways to go back to your home directory: try each in turn, changing back into

the Desktop subdirectory each time. The first is:

cd ..

The .. symbols are another shortcut, this time for ‘the directory above this one’, also known

as the parent directory. Because the directory above Desktop is your home directory, this

returns you there. Change back into the Desktop subdirectory, and try the second way:

cd ~

This uses the ~ symbol, and literally means ‘change into my home directory’. Unlike cd ..,

which just takes you to the parent directory of whatever directory you’re currently in, this

command works from anywhere – but there’s an easier way:

cd

Without being given the name of a directory, cd simply defaults to going back to your home

directory. The final way to get back to your home directory is to type:

cd /home/pi

This uses what is called an absolute path, which will work regardless of the current working

directory. So, like cd on its own or cd ~, this will return you to your home directory from

wherever you are; unlike the other methods, though, it needs you to know your user name.

CORRECT CASE

Raspbian’s command-line interface is case-sensitive, meaning that it

matters when commands or names have upper- and lower-case letters.

If you received a ‘no such file or directory’ message when you tried to

change directories, check that you had a capital D at the start of Desktop.