Practice Use drills for recall and labs for real operating judgment.

LAB-NAV-01 - First Steps: pwd, ls, cd

Confidently navigate the Linux file system using pwd, ls, and cd - the three commands you will use constantly.

NAV Navigation Mastery

First Steps: pwd, ls, cd

Confidently navigate the Linux file system using pwd, ls, and cd - the three commands you will use constantly.

45 min BEGINNER LINUX Field-verified
Success criteria
  • Use pwd, ls, and cd without guessing.
  • Repeat the workflow without copy-paste or step-by-step prompting.

Part A: The Field Guide

What and Why

Before you edit files, install software, or debug anything, you need three answers:

  1. Where am I?
  2. What is here?
  3. How do I move?

Those questions map directly to three commands:

  • pwd
  • ls
  • cd

If these three feel unstable, everything else in Linux feels harder than it should.

Mental Model

Think of the Linux file system as rooms connected by doors.

  • pwd tells you which room you are in.
  • ls shows what is inside the room.
  • cd walks through a door into another room.

Do not rush this. Reliable movement is more important than speed.

Command Reference

pwd

Shows your current working directory.

Where am I?

pwd

ls

Shows what is inside the current directory.

What is here?

ls ls -a ls -la

cd

Changes your location.

Move around

cd Documents cd .. cd / cd ~ cd -

One useful habit

If something feels wrong, run pwd first. Many beginner mistakes are really location mistakes.

Common Beginner Failure Points

Watch for these:

  • assuming you are in your home directory when you are not
  • forgetting that Linux is case-sensitive
  • thinking a directory is empty because you forgot ls -a
  • typing cd into a folder name that does not exist on this machine

That is why verification matters after every move.

Part B: The Drill Deck

You need a Linux terminal for these exercises. WSL, a VM, or a Linux machine is fine.

G
Guided Step by step - type exactly this and compare the result
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Exercise G1: Find yourself

  1. Open your terminal.
  2. Run pwd.
  3. Say out loud what directory you are currently in.

Exercise G2: Look around

  1. Run ls.
  2. Run ls -a.
  3. Notice what appeared only after using -a.

Exercise G3: Move and verify

  1. Run cd /tmp.
  2. Run pwd.
  3. Run cd ...
  4. Run pwd again.
  5. Run cd ~.
  6. Run pwd one more time.

Exercise G4: Toggle back

  1. Run cd /var.
  2. Run cd -.
  3. Run cd - again.
  4. Explain what happened.
S
Solo Task described, hints available - figure it out
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Exercise S1: Build a short path trail

Visit these in order and verify each with pwd:

  1. your home directory
  2. /tmp
  3. /etc
  4. /var/log
  5. back home without typing the full home path

Exercise S2: Inspect without moving blindly

  1. Go to your home directory.
  2. Use ls to inspect /etc without entering it.
  3. Use ls -a in your home directory.
  4. Identify one hidden file or folder.

Exercise S3: Basic confidence check

Without looking back at the lesson, explain:

  • what pwd tells you
  • what ls -a adds
  • what cd .. means
  • what cd ~ means
M
Mission Real scenario - no hints, combine multiple skills
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Mission M1: Build a machine map

Starting from /, use only pwd, ls, and cd to inspect these places:

  1. /etc
  2. /var
  3. /home
  4. your own home directory

Then answer: which location looks like configuration, which looks like logs or changing data, and which is personal user space?

Mission M2: The no-guessing loop

Practice this until it feels calm and repeatable:

  1. pwd
  2. cd /var/log
  3. pwd
  4. ls
  5. cd -
  6. pwd

The goal is not speed. The goal is knowing where you are at every step.