How to move up a directory with Terminal in OS X

Step 1: Open the Terminal application.

Use your preferred method to open the Terminal application. 

Type the command as shown below and then hit the return key.

Step 3: Enter your password. 

Enter the password and hit the return key.

Step 4: Perform whatever tasks you need to perform.

Step 5: Exit 

sudo su – root

You will need to enter your password just as you did in the previous procedure. Notice in the above login, the prompt is slightly different. It still has the # symbol, but it does not have the color scheme or show the current directory. 

This is because it uses the root’s environment variables instead of my original environment variables. If we look at the current directory, you will also notice that we are now in the root’s home directory instead of the directory I was originally in.

Below are some frequently asked questions about running Terminal as root.

sudo su root

Notice there is no – in this command. As with the other commands, you will also need to enter your password here.

What does sudo stand for?

Why Do I need to exit after working as root? Why not just work as root all the time?

You can navigate to the file system on your Mac while in the Terminal application using the cd command.

cd <path and/or folder name>

My name is Eric, and as a software engineer for over 25 years, I have learned how to quickly navigate file and folder systems with command line tools such as Terminal. 

I will show you some of my preferred ways to do this and provide tips to make things easier, so keep reading.

You can use several methods to navigate to a folder in Terminal Mac. If you are using the Terminal application regularly, I recommend getting comfortable using the cd command. It’s one you will use a lot, and you should know.

There are also a couple of ways to use Finder from your desktop to get there, and this can be an excellent method when you need to do this quickly. As with any task on your Mac, it is always good to know multiple methods for accomplishing them. Let’s take a look at some now.

Using a Path with the cd Command

The cd command is the old reliable way to get to any folder on your file system. There are a couple of different scenarios to consider. The first is that you already know the path where your folder exists. For the second one, you don’t know the path and need to find it.

Let’s see how to do this in each situation. To get started, you need to open a session of your Terminal application.

You Know the Path

This can be pretty simple if you already know the path of the folder to which you want to navigate. All you need to do is plug it into the cd command, as shown below.

Find the Path

In many cases, you won’t know the path to the folder you need to navigate to. In this situation, you will need to use some method to find it. You can use any of the same methods that you would use to find the path to a file. Below I will use the find command.

find / -name <foldername> 2>/dev/null

or for my example

find / -name WebArt 2>/dev/null

Now I can select the path by highlighting it, then copy it, and then paste it to the end of my cd command.

Exploring your Disk with the cd command

Sometimes we may not know the exact name of the directory we are looking for, or maybe we have an idea of what contents will be in the folder but don’t know the name of it. We may want to look around and explore what is in our file system.

In this case, I can use the cd command to traverse up and down the hierarchy of our file system. I can do this by specifying single folders within my current directory to move to. I’ll need to use the ls -l command to see what folders are in our current directory.

If I want to move to the Test directory, I can use the cd command below.

Once in the Test directory, I can also use the pwd command, as seen in the image above, to show the path of my current location.

Using the ls -l command again, I can now see the list of folders underneath the Test directory, which is my current directory.

Here we see our WebArt folder used from the previous example. Now I can use the cd command again to move to this folder.

I am now in the WebArt folder. This is an empty folder, but I have used the ls -la command to show the contents. The a parameter tells the system to show all contents, even hidden ones. Notice the . and the .. entries that are shown as directories.

While it can take some time, you can use this method to traverse up and down the folder structure on your file system. Using the cd <foldername>, the ls command, and cd .., we can easily move around and get to anywhere we want to go.

Quick commands to help Navigation using cd

Once you begin using the cd command regularly, you will become more comfortable and learn tricks to make things a little easier and more natural. Below are some commands that can help you to get to where you are going quicker.

• cd –  Go back to the previous directory you were just in.
• cd .. Move back one directory level.
• cd ~ Go to your home directory
• cd    This will also take you to your home directory.
• cd / Go to the root directory.
• pwd shows your current directory
• ls -la lists the continents of the current directory showing details and hidden files and folders.

Two Methods using Finder

Above, we have learned how to navigate to a folder using the command line in Mac Terminal. It is important to know how to use the cd command and the methods shown above to move around the file system, but you can use a few quick techniques when needed.

Drag and Drop

Step 1: Type cd and space in your Terminal window. (Do not hit return yet)

Step 2: Open Finder using your preferred method.

Step 3: Navigate to the folder that contains the folder you wish to go to in the Terminal. You can use the search feature if you are unsure of where it is.

Step 4: Click on the Folder name in Finder and hold the left button down.

Step 5: Drag the folder over to your Terminal window.

Step 6: Release the left mouse button to drop the folder into the Terminal window.

Step 7: Hit the return key in your Terminal window

You will now be in the folder.

This method works well when you want to open up a new Terminal session in the location of the folder that you want to navigate to. Use finder to get to the location and right-click to bring up the context menu. From there, you can open a Terminal session, and you are there.

Below are a few questions often asked when learning how to navigate to folders in Terminal Mac.

Why do I see a Permission Denied message?

You may see a permission denied message if the folder you are trying to navigate to does not have read permissions or is not owned by you. You will need to change the folder’s permissions using the sudo chmod command with your password.

sudo chmod 777 <foldername>

You should now be able to cd to the folder.

Why do some paths have a ./ at the beginning, some have a /, and others just have the folder name?

Why does the find command show two different paths to my folder?

You can navigate to a folder in Terminal Mac in multiple ways. You should use the method that you find most comfortable but using the cd command is one that you should learn even if you prefer using finder with the drag and drop or context menu methods.

Have you found other ways that you like to use to navigate your Mac’s file system? I would love your feedback so let me know if you have any comments or questions.

If you are new to Mac Terminal and just learning some of the basic commands, it’s possible you may be feeling overwhelmed. Don’t worry, once you begin using it on a regular basis, things like changing directories will become second nature to you, and typing them in will be a breeze.

cd <file path>

I’m Eric, I have been around computers for over 40 years and I have worked as a software engineer for over 20. I have used command-line interfaces like Mac Terminal for much of that time and commands like cd are ingrained in my head so they come naturally to me.

While this command can be very simple, there are some things to know and look out for. Keep reading, and I will explain a bit further how to use it and give you some tips to make it a little easier to use.

What is the cd Command?

As I mentioned above, the cd command, which stands for change directory, is one of the most commonly used commands in UNIX/LINUX-based command-line interfaces such as Mac Terminal. This is the command that is used to navigate the file systems that you have access to.

File systems are made up of a hierarchy of directories. The top directory is referred to as the root directory, and directories underneath that are called sub-directories. This can be seen on your desktop in finder when you look at the folder structure.

In Finder, you can simply click down through the folders or subdirectories to get where you want to go but this is not possible from the command line. 

The cd command allows you to navigate down the subdirectories or back up the hierarchy to the root directory by typing in their paths.

What is a Path?

A path is just what the name indicates. It is a pathway or directions that you give to a command that tells your computer how to navigate or traverse the hierarchy of subdirectories to get to where you want to go in the file system.

From our example above, an absolute path might be

An example of a relative path would be if we are already sitting in the /Applications/newdevelopment directory.

App1/Logs       (notice there is no / before the path specification)

This path is relative to /Applications/newdevelopment

An easy way to tell the difference between an absolute path and a relative path is that an absolute path begins with a / and a relative one does not. This is because the absolute path always starts from the root directory which is defined as /.

Mac Terminal uses a UNIX/LINUX-based style of commands so paths are formed by putting the names of directories together with a / in between each directory name, with the root directory always being denoted as just the / by itself. 

If you wanted to move to the newdevelopment directory from anywhere on the file system, you could type:

Once in the newdevelopment directory, if you wanted to move to the App1 directory, you would only need to type

cd App1   (this uses the relative path)

But typing the absolute path will also work.

cd /Applications/newdevelopment/App1 (the absolute path) 

If I wanted to move to the decomm directory from this location I would either need to use an absolute path or I could specify upper level directories using the .. which stands for the parent directory. I will need to move up two levels in order to get to the decomm directory.

This means I would need to use two sets of .. separated by / which would result in the command shown below.

Remember that relative is relative to where you currently are in the structure. You can reach any location using a relative path as long as it is formed correctly by moving up or down the directory hierarchy, but in some cases, it’s easier to use the absolute path.

Nearly all errors that occur when using the cd command come from an improperly formed path. Many are just typing mistakes or leaving out a / somewhere, especially at the beginning of an absolute path, but most come from improperly formed relative paths.

Directory Does not Exist

Including a File in the Path

Another problem that some run into is adding the file name into the path. When trying to change directories using the cd command, the path cannot contain a filename because you cannot cd to a file, only to a directory location.

Spaces in the Path

One more common problem is accidentally (or purposely) having a space in your path. The command does not like spaces and this will cause it to fail. Some directory names do have spaces in them so you will need to use quotation marks to properly execute the command.

The cd command has only one parameter, the path. The key to ensuring your cd command works properly is ensuring your path is formed properly. Below are a few tips and tricks that can help you to move around your file system a little easier.

Some Quick Tips and Tricks

The cd command is quite simple but it is easy to make mistakes and can often require a lot of typing for long paths. Some of the tips and tricks below may help you to use it more efficiently. 

• Type cd / to move to the root directory.
• Type cd ~ to move to your home directory. 
• Type cd .. to move up one directory level.
• Use the .. to create relative paths. If I am in the App3 directory as shown above I can use cd ../App2 to move to the App2 directory. 
• A single dot (.) Represents your current directory. 
• Use cd – to move to whatever directory you were previously in.
• Copy and paste whenever possible. This reduces the amount of typing which in return reduces typing errors. 
• If a directory name in your path has a space in it, enclose the path in single quotation marks so that the space does not cause the command to fail.

The cd command is one of the most used commands when using Mac Terminal. It is what seems to be a simple command with only one parameter which is the path, but it can often turn complicated when trying to figure out the correct path and how you need to get to your location.

I hope the information I have provided above has helped you to learn how to use this command. As always, please let me know if you have any questions or problems.