One of the most essential commands in Linux is the change directory command or cd command. This is how you will navigate to different directories throughout your system. Using this command will change your current working directory to a different one you specify.
Since this is such a common command for every Linux user, it comes with a few convenient shortcuts baked in. One such shortcut is the ability to return to the present user’s home directory in very few keystrokes.
In this tutorial, you will see several different ways to return to the user’s home directory with the cd command in linux. We’ll also throw in another bonus tip to make your life using the command line a little easier.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to go to home directory in Linux with cd command
- How to go back to previous directory in Linux with cd command
| Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
|---|---|
| System | Any Linux system |
| Software | N/A |
| Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
| Conventions | # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to go to home directory in Linux using cd command
Each user in Linux has their own home directory. You can think of this space as the user’s default directory where most of their personal files are stored. Each user’s home is typically stored inside the parent
/home directory, but this is not always the case, since a home directory can be configured to use any path on the system.
Any of the following methods can be used to return to the present user’s home directory:
- This is the simplest. Just use the
cdcommand and no further options.$ cd
- As you may know,
~also represents the user’s home directory. Therefore you can use this command tocdinto the home directory.$ cd ~
- It is also possible to use the system’s
$HOMEenvironment variable to accomplish the same task.$ cd $HOME
WHERE IS MY HOME DIRECTORY?
The$HOMEis a shell environmental variable containing a full path to user directory. The$HOMEvariable is set automatically by the system upon its installation and is usually set to/home/username. However, it is possible to set the$HOMEvariable to any custom path as required. To see a full path to your home directory execute the following commandecho $HOMEfrom your shell terminal. - Bonus tip: What if we need to go directly back to the directory where we just were? In that case, you can use a dash, like so:
$ cd -
This is particularly handy if you need to navigate to the home directory for something, but then want to return right back to where you were originally to continue with some other work.
Closing Thoughts
As you can see, the cd command has a few tricks that make your life a lot easier. For Linux admins and power users that spend a lot of time in the command line, this saves us a lot of time and carpal tunnel syndrome.
