How do I change directories from the command line?

Question

I'm try to change to my Desktop directory from the terminal.

Running

cd /home/desktop

gives an error in the terminal saying no directory found.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

iBelieve's answer covers almost everything, but alternatively you can type

cd ~/Desktop/

the ~/ stands for /home/$USER/ or $HOME/

Answer 2

To answer your question mentioned in the quoted article:

The directory format is like this:

/
    home
        <username>
            Desktop
            Documents
            ...

so your command should be

cd /home/$USER/Desktop

To learn the directory structure, I'd suggest opening up the Home Folder app from the launcher on the left, and going to Computer and just exploring for a while. You won't be able to break anything outside of your home folder.

Answer 3

Because I haven't seen it mentioned yet, it should be noted that all directory names in Ubuntu (Linux) are case-sensitive. So even if you were in your correct home directory, executing a cd desktop should and will fail. If you look at @iBelieve's post, you can see that the Desktop directory starts with a capital 'D'. To get there, you will need to specify the correct case.

cd Desktop

To help you in the future, take a look at this Ubuntu help wiki page on using the terminal.

Answer 4

The following bash builtin commands are equivalent and they change the current working directory to your Desktop directory from your user home directory:

cd ~/Desktop               # my favorite

cd ~; cd Desktop

cd ~ && cd Desktop

cd $HOME/Desktop

cd /home/$USER/Desktop

cd /home/username/Desktop  # where 'username' is your user name

cd $CDPATH && cd Desktop

cd `locate -b '\Desktop'`

cd $(locate -b '\Desktop')