Symbol	Meaning
.	Current (working) directory
..	Parent directory; the directory directly above the current directory
~	User's home directory (Korn, C and Bash Shells)

Use the pathname abbreviations with the cd command to move around the file structure.

Example

In this example, the users current location in the file system is /home/charles/snoopy (seen by using the pwd command):

$ pwd
/home/charles/snoopy
$

By using the cd .. command the user is moved to the parent of the snoopy directory (/home/charles/):

$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/charles
$

Next the user moves to the / (root) by typing in the cd ../.. command.

$ cd ../..
$ pwd
/
$

Next, the user moves to a subdirectory of his home directory by using the tilde (~) option with the cd command.

$ pwd

/

$ cd ~/play

$ pwd

/home/charles/play

$