Transfered from Linux Config Disqus comments:
Question:
In what directory will the command ‘cd …’ (note the two dots in this command) not do anything at all?
Answer:
In root directory “/”.
Since the … directory points to a parent directory and / ( root directory ) is on the top of the file system hierarchy standard and therefore it does not have a parent directory, the “cd …” command will not do anything at all. We may also say that / directory is a parent directory of itself. Try:
$ cd /
$ pwd
/
$ cd ..
$ pwd
/
Long Answer:
Every directory in the linux file system contains two special directories and they are:
[ul]
[li]“.” a current working directory [/li][li]“…” a parent directory [/li][/ul]
To see these special directories enter command:
ls -a
Current working directory “.” points to itself.
Examples:
The command below will copy a file from /tmp directory to a current working directory:
cp /tmp/file .
Ore check disk space mounted below my current working directory:
df -h .
Parent directory “…” points to a directory one above my current working directory.
Examples:
Use a symbolic path to navigate to different directory in the same parent directory:
$ pwd
/tmp
$ cd ../etc/
$ pwd
/etc
Navigate two directories above my current directory:
$ pwd
/etc/terminfo
$ cd ../..
$ pwd
/