Linux Directory Navigation: Commands You’ll Use Every Day on the Job

The Commands You’ll Use 100+ Times Daily

Before you can manage servers, you need to move around them. Directory navigation is so fundamental that experienced admins don’t think about it—it’s pure muscle memory.

That’s exactly where you need to get. When someone asks you to check a log file, you shouldn’t be thinking about how to get there. You should already be there, reading it.

This article covers the navigation commands that become second nature in any Linux role. Simple? Yes. Essential? Absolutely.

The Core Three: pwd, ls, cd

pwd – Where Am I?

# Print working directory
pwd
/home/user/projects

# Use it when you're lost
cd /some/path && pwd

Always know where you are. It sounds obvious until you’re five directories deep and about to run a destructive command.

ls – What’s Here?

# Basic listing
ls

# Detailed listing (permissions, owner, size, date)
ls -l

# Include hidden files (starting with .)
ls -la

# Human-readable sizes
ls -lh

# Sort by time (newest first)
ls -lt

# Sort by size (largest first)
ls -lS

# Recursive (all subdirectories)
ls -R

The combination you’ll use most: ls -la shows everything including hidden files with full details.

Flag	Meaning	When to Use
-l	Long format	Always, basically
-a	Show hidden files	Looking for dotfiles/configs
-h	Human sizes	When sizes matter
-t	Sort by time	Finding recent changes
-S	Sort by size	Finding large files
-R	Recursive	Exploring structure

cd – Go There

# Change to specific directory
cd /var/log

# Go to home directory
cd
cd ~

# Go up one level
cd ..

# Go up two levels
cd ../..

# Go to previous directory
cd -

# Follow a path step by step
cd /var && cd log && cd nginx

Path Concepts

Absolute vs Relative Paths

# Absolute path (starts with /)
cd /var/log/nginx

# Relative path (from current directory)
cd ../logs
cd ./scripts

Symbol	Meaning	Example
/	Root directory	cd /
~	Home directory	cd ~/scripts
.	Current directory	./script.sh
..	Parent directory	cd ..
-	Previous directory	cd -

Tab Completion

This is non-negotiable. Press Tab to autocomplete paths:

# Type: cd /var/lo[TAB]
# Becomes: cd /var/log/

# Multiple matches? Press Tab twice for options
cd /var/[TAB][TAB]

If you’re typing full paths without Tab completion, you’re working too hard.

The Linux Filesystem Structure

Know where things live:

Directory	Contains	You’ll Go Here For
/	Root filesystem	Everything starts here
/home	User home directories	User files, SSH keys
/root	Root user’s home	Root’s configs
/etc	Configuration files	Editing app configs
/var/log	Log files	Troubleshooting
/var/www	Web content	Web server files
/tmp	Temporary files	Scratch space
/opt	Optional software	Third-party apps
/usr/bin	User programs	Finding executables
/usr/local	Locally installed software	Manual installations

Finding Things

find – Search by Name/Attributes

# Find files by name
find /var/log -name "*.log"

# Find files modified in last 24 hours
find /var/log -mtime -1

# Find files larger than 100MB
find / -size +100M

# Find and do something
find /tmp -name "*.tmp" -delete

# Find directories only
find /var -type d -name "log*"

# Find files only
find /home -type f -name "*.conf"

locate – Fast Filename Search

# Update the database first
sudo updatedb

# Search
locate nginx.conf

# Case-insensitive
locate -i readme

locate is faster but uses a pre-built database. find searches in real-time.

which/whereis – Find Commands

# Where is this command?
which python
/usr/bin/python

# More details
whereis python
python: /usr/bin/python3.10 /usr/lib/python3.10 /usr/share/man/man1/python.1.gz

Efficient Navigation

pushd/popd – Directory Stack

# Save current directory and change
pushd /var/log
# Now in /var/log, original saved

# Go somewhere else
cd /etc/nginx

# Pop back to saved directory
popd
# Back to original location

Creating Navigation Aliases

Add to your ~/.bashrc:

# Common directories
alias logs='cd /var/log'
alias www='cd /var/www/html'
alias configs='cd /etc'

# Useful shortcuts
alias ..='cd ..'
alias ...='cd ../..'
alias ll='ls -la'
alias lt='ls -lat | head -20'

Reload with source ~/.bashrc.

Using History

# See recent directories
dirs -v

# Search history for cd commands
history | grep "cd /"

# Repeat last command starting with cd
!cd

Working with Paths

basename/dirname

# Get filename from path
basename /var/log/nginx/error.log
# error.log

# Get directory from path
dirname /var/log/nginx/error.log
# /var/log/nginx

realpath/readlink

# Get absolute path
realpath ./relative/path

# Resolve symbolic links
readlink -f /usr/bin/python

Common Patterns

Quick Config Check

# Jump to config, check, jump back
pushd /etc/nginx
cat nginx.conf | head -20
popd

Find and Navigate to Large Files

# Find largest files
du -ah /var | sort -rh | head -10

# Navigate to one
cd $(dirname /var/log/huge-file.log)

Check What Changed Recently

# Recent changes in /etc
find /etc -mtime -1 -type f

# Last modified files in current directory
ls -lt | head -10

Quick Reference

# Navigation
pwd                     # Where am I?
cd /path                # Go to path
cd                      # Go home
cd -                    # Previous directory
cd ..                   # Up one level

# Listing
ls -la                  # Everything with details
ls -lt                  # Sort by time
ls -lS                  # Sort by size
ls -lh                  # Human-readable sizes

# Finding
find /path -name "*.txt"    # Find by name
find /path -mtime -1        # Modified today
find /path -size +100M      # Large files
locate filename             # Fast search
which command               # Find command location

# Utilities
pushd /path             # Save location, go there
popd                    # Return to saved location
realpath ./file         # Get absolute path

The Career Translation

Practice Exercises

1. Explore a new server – Navigate to /etc, /var/log, /home without typing full paths
2. Find the largest log file – Use find or du to locate it, navigate there
3. Set up aliases – Create shortcuts for your common directories
4. Time yourself – How fast can you get to /var/log/nginx/error.log from anywhere?

Next Steps

• Process management – Now that you can find things, learn to manage what’s running
• File manipulation – cp, mv, rm, mkdir in depth
• Scripting – Automate navigation patterns

Navigation is the foundation. Everything else builds on moving confidently through the filesystem.

---

Part 7 of the Linux Fundamentals series. Next: process management with ps, top, htop, and kill—controlling what runs on your systems.

---