Use the Linux terminal to navigate throughout your computer
======
Learn to navigate from directory to directory in the Linux terminal.
![Move around your computer][1]
To navigate through the directories of your computer in a graphical interface, you're probably used to opening a window to get "into" your computer, and then double-clicking on a folder, and then on a subfolder, and so on. You may also use arrow buttons or keys to back track.
To navigate through your computer in the terminal, you use the **cd** command. You can use **cd ..** to move one directory _back_, or **cd ./path/to/another/folder** to jump through many folders into a specific location.
The concept of a URL, which you use on the Internet already, is actually pulled directly from [POSIX][2]. When you navigate to a specific page on some website, like `http://www.example.com/tutorials/lesson2.html`, you are actually changing directory to `/var/www/imaginarysite/tutorials/` and opening a file called `lesson2.html`. Of course, you open it in a web browser, which interprets all that weird-looking HTML code into pretty text and pictures. But the idea is exactly the same.
If you think of your computer as the Internet (or the Internet as a computer, more appropriately), then you can understand how to wander through your folders and files. If you start out in your user folder (your home, or `~` for short) then everywhere you want to go is relative to that:
```
$ cd ~/Documents
$ pwd
/home/tux/Documents
$ cd ..
$ pwd
/home/tux
```
This requires some practise, but after a while it becomes far faster than opening and closing windows, clicking on back buttons and folder icons.
### Auto-completion with Tab
The **Tab** key on your keyboard auto-completes names of directories and files you're starting to type. If you're going to **cd** into `~/Documents`, then all you need to type is `cd ~/Doc` and then press **Tab**. Your shell auto-completes `uments`. This isn't just a pleasant convenience, it's also a way to prevent error. If you're pressing **Tab** and nothing's being auto-completed, then probably the file or directory you _think_ is in a location isn't actually there. Even experienced Linux users try to change directory to a place that doesn't exist in their current location, so use **pwd** and **ls** often to confirm you are where you think you are, and that your current directory actually contains the files you think it contains.
