File and Directory Commands

• cd: change the directory. Same as DOS.
• cd .www changes from your home directory to your .www (HTML) directory.
• cd .www/cgi-bin channges from your home directory to your cgi-bin (Perl/CGI) directory.
• pwd: - tells you where you are; present working directory.  Not your password!
• ls: lists the directory contents.  Similar to dir command in DOS.
• ls -l: also tells you premissions, modification date, user group, etc.  Similar to View - Show Details in Windows Explorer.
• The -l is a flag for the ls command.  Many Unix commands have these.  They are additional options for the command.
• rm filename: removes (deletes) a file.  similar to del in DOS.
• filename is the name of a file in the current directory, or a file in another directory with that directory's relative or absolute filename specified.
• Can use * as a wildcard.
• mkdir path: makes a directory named path (whatever you choose to put where I put path).
• rmdir path: removes a directory named path.
• .. (two periods): The previous directory, relative to the current path.
• Examples:
• You are in .www/cgi-bin, and you want to delete the file called test.txt in .www.  You would type:

rm ../test.txt
• You are in .www, and you want to delete the file called test.txt in .www/cgi-bin.  You would type:

rm cgi-bin/test.txt
Alternatively,
cd cgi-bin
rm test.txt
• Demonstration