How to change folders in Terminal?

Question

Level 1

82 points

How to change folders in Terminal?

In terminal, when I try to go a few folders down, I get a prompt with only the sideways carrot, ">". For example:

cd Sub1\"This is Sub2"

displays the simple prompt rather than the folder I'm. Terminal commands don't execute either. I just get the prompt again. What happened?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Jan 18, 2009 3:43 PM

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Answer 1

iBod

Level 7

29,345 points

Jan 18, 2009 3:52 PM in response to brett romero

Hi,

It looks like you're using Windows cmd prompt terminology.

Change backslashes to forward slashes for directory paths.

E.g. cd ~/Library/Preferences

Edit: There's a series of articles about the Terminal here that might come in handy: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/mac/2005/05/20/terminal1.html

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Answer 2

brett romero Author

Level 1

82 points

Jan 18, 2009 5:17 PM in response to iBod

Thanks. If I have a Mac app written in XCode, the executable will drop into its build/debug folder. In Terminal, I always start at the root folder relative to me:
MacBook:/ brettromero$

The Mac app is running Terminal commands. When it runs "cd /", it is still in the build/debug folder. Does that mean this app isn't running in the context of me and therefore has a different root folder? I'm writing the app while logged into my account. Is there a command I can execute that will bring the app all the way down to the root drive level?

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Answer 3

nerowolfe

Level 6

13,090 points

Jan 18, 2009 5:21 PM in response to brett romero

brett romero wrote:
Thanks. If I have a Mac app written in XCode, the executable will drop into its build/debug folder. In Terminal, I always start at the root folder relative to me:
MacBook:/ brettromero$

The Mac app is running Terminal commands. When it runs "cd /", it is still in the build/debug folder. Does that mean this app isn't running in the context of me and therefore has a different root folder? I'm writing the app while logged into my account. Is there a command I can execute that will bring the app all the way down to the root drive level?

I suggest reposting in our Unix forum here:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=735

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Answer 4

iBod

Level 7

29,345 points

Jan 19, 2009 1:24 AM in response to brett romero

Hi,

'cd /' should take you to the root level of the drive, irrespective of the user running the command, so I've no idea why that doesn't for you. I can only guess the program isn't executing the command correctly.

You might be best posting this question in either the UNIX forum (as Nerowolfe mentions) or the [Developer forum|http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=727].

Good luck!

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