Linux Paths and Navigation Cheat Sheet

echo "$PWD"

# Print current directory using shell state.

basename /var/log/nginx/access.log

# Extract the last path component.

dirname /var/log/nginx/access.log

# Extract the parent directory path.

realpath --relative-to=/var/log /var/log/nginx/access.log

# Produce canonical path using a base directory.

ls *.txt

# Expand shell glob to files ending in .txt.

shopt -s globstar && ls **/*.log

# Match files recursively with globstar enabled.

shopt -s dotglob && printf '%s
' *

# Enable matching hidden files with shell globs.

mkdir -p project/{src,tests,docs}

# Generate multiple path names quickly.

pushd /etc/nginx

# Change directory and push previous one onto stack.

popd

# Pop top directory from stack and change to it.

dirs -c

# Remove entries from shell directory stack.

find . -type f -print0 | while IFS= read -r -d '' f; do printf '%s
' "$f"; done

# Use NUL delimiters for filenames with spaces/newlines.

realpath ./scripts/deploy.sh

# Resolve a relative path from current directory.

[[ -e /etc/hosts ]] && echo exists

# Check file or directory existence in shell scripts.