Need Help w/Konsole

**SMPZ** · 19-Mar-2016, 18:37

Hi. I'm relatively new to Leap. When I use Dolphin and navigate to the Documents section in my home directory (/home/steven/Documents), I can see what is in that directory. However, when I use Konsole, I can only go so far as /home/steven. When I do a "pwd", it shows I am in that directory. And when I do an "ls", it shows everything in that directory with the executable files in green and the Directories in blue. But when I try to change to one of those Directories in blue, Konsole tells me that there is no such file or directory. I'm not sure why I can get at it in Dolphin but not Konsole. I have some files in the Documents directory that I built but can't get in there to compile them. I tried switching to "su" thinking that would override something I'm missing but that didn't work either. (I know that's dangerous so I immediately exited out of it.) Thanks for any help you can give me.

Steve

**nrickert** · 19-Mar-2016, 20:07

It should work.

How are you trying to change to the directory?

If I want to change to the Desktop directory, I do:

Code:

 cd Desktop

For you, it should also be possible to use:

Code:

 cd /home/steven/Desktop

but most folk use the shorter command.

If you are using

Code:

 cd /Desktop

or

Code:

 cd /home/Desktop

then that won't work.

**SMPZ** · 19-Mar-2016, 20:22

Okay. I was using the backslash. I'm not on that PC right now but will try it when I am. Why wouldn't I use the backslash? Because I am already in the parent directory? Thanks for your help. I knew it had to be something simple.

Steve

**nrickert** · 19-Mar-2016, 20:51

Originally Posted by SMPZ

Why wouldn't I use the backslash? Because I am already in the parent directory?

Yes.

Actually, "/" is usually called "slash" while "\" is called "backslash".

In any case, it's good to see you trying to get the hang of using the command line. Feel free to post further questions if you have them.

**hcvv** · 20-Mar-2016, 03:57

Try to understand the difference between absolute and relative pathes.

An absolute path starts with a / and is alwyas from the root of the one and only directory tree on your system.

When a path does not start with a / it is relative to your working directory.

This is very important, specialy when you are root because then doing things to the wronf files can wotk out as a disaster.

BTW when you use Konsole, it is not Konsole that matters so much. You are then using a shell, most probably bash. So when you want to know more about the commands you type there, you should learn and ask about using bash, not realy about Konsole. Shells work from every terminal, if it is the console of your system, a terminal connected (does not occur to often nowadays), or a terminal emulator like xterm or konsole.

**gogalthorp** · 20-Mar-2016, 05:54

You can use a short hand also ~/

that indicates the current users home. In essence ~/ is /home/username/

Microsoft uses backslashes and Unix/Linux uses forward slashes. MS has always been backwards to the rest of the world