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dsmastrodomenic
Asked: 2018-08-30 05:17:30 +0800 CST

Error when using the commands cd.. and cd. in the terminal [duplicate]

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I try to use the commands cd.. and cd. in the terminal to move from my current folder to a previous one, and it shows me a message that the command doesn't exist...

What could the problem be? I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

command-line bash cd-command

3 Answers

  1. You need to add a space between the commmand (cd) and the arguments (the path where you want to go).

    In your case, you should use cd .. instead of cd..

    Also, please note that the previous folder directory is not the same as the parent directory. I encourage you to check this answer to obtain more information about the directory navigation basics in Linux.

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  2. Try this to save your sanity:

    alias cd..='cd ..'

    Now you can type it either with the space or without and it will still work.

    Explanation: Windows and MS-DOS allow you to type CD.. to change directory to one level higher than you currently are. Some commands are built in to the command interpreter on those systems. Linux (and probably other *nixes) looks for a program followed by arguments, and the only way to separate the program and arguments is with a space. Hence, Linux is only seeing one command called 'cd..' and it can't find the executable for it. What you mean is 'cd ..' (cd => program, .. => argument).

    My solution adds an alias for 'cd..' so that when you type that on a command line the system will instead run 'cd ..' (with space). See the other comments to this answer to see about adding that as a permanent alias.

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  3. The actual command is cd ... You forgot that space.

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