> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://igb.mit.edu/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://igb.mit.edu/mini-courses/introduction-to-unix/the-unix-shell/using-the-unix-shell/traversing-the-unix-tree.md).

# Traversing the Unix Tree

* `cd`
  * This command name stands for "change directory".
  * It changes your current working directory to the specified location.
  * The last visited directory is referred to with a hyphen ("-").

```bash
# go to root directory of the system and print the working directory
cd /
pwd

# go to the home directory and print the working directory
cd ~
pwd

# change directory using the absolute path and print the working directory
cd /net/bmc-pub14/data/
pwd
```