how use terminal to access a folder on desktop

If the folder has spaces, such as "C++ source code", you can either surround the folder with quotes as I just did, eg

cd "C++ source code"

or you can escape the spaces, eg

cd C++\ source\ folder

Don't forget, too, that you can usually hit the tab key to autocomplete a path in Terminal.

PS - I would generally advise against using punctuation in folder names, such as "C++", just to avoid incompatibilities and code confusion.

Matt

The backslash is an escape character for the shell; it allows you to get spaces into the path, for instance. (Windows uses as a directory separator. Mac OS X and other Unix and Linux systems uses the / for that purpose. There are other differences in file specification syntax between Windows and other platforms, as well.)

If you have a subdirectory of your login directory named Code, then the path in Terminal is

cd ~/Code

That tilde is shorthand for your login directory, and the longer version of that path is usually something like this:

cd /Users/your-short-name-here/Code

Here's a longer command sequence, moving first to your login directory, then a relative path into the Code subdirectory:

cd ~
cd Code

Had you had a space in that directory with, say, My Code, then you'd have one of the following:

cd ~/My Code
cd /Users/your-short-name-here/My Code

Since you're planning to do some programming, here is a [file system overview|http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MacOSX/Conceptua l/BPFileSystem/Articles/Domains.html] from the Apple developer documentation. This document describes various concepts and constructs, as well as the directories that should be used for various purposes.

seems as if the name "code" and "source code" won't work in terminal for folder names

Then you're doing something wrong. There's nothing special about the name 'code'.

cd code didn't work

'cd code' would change to the 'code' directory relative to your current location. In other words, if you open Terminal and start in your home directory (e.g /Users/yourname/) then this will change to the 'code' directory in your home directory (e.g. /Users/yourname/code/)

From your earlier posts it seems that your code directory is on your Desktop, not in your home directory, and therefore cd code would not work (unless you were already in your Desktop.

So your options are:

1: cd to your Desktop, then cd to code:

$ cd Desktop
$ cd code

2: include the Desktop path element in your cd statement:

$ cd Desktop/code

3: specify a full pathname (with a leading /) to the directory you want to change to:

$ cd /Users/yourname/Desktop/code

or other variations on the theme. Understanding the working directory and relative paths is going to be a critical step in your learning process.

To see what directory you are in, use the pwd command.



Here is an overview of the terminal commands. Lets assume that your account has a short user name of mac.
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
#What is my short user name? Type the whoami command.
mac $ whoami
mac
mac $

#How to list all of your disks.
# The ls command is for li st
mac $ ls /Volumes/
Audio CD Macintosh-HD Spotless Tiger-ext
mac $


# Let's say your flash drive is named Spotless

# cd is change directory
mac $ cd /Volumes/Spotless
# pwd is print working directory
mac $ pwd
/Volumes/Spotless
mac $




# The ls command is for li st
# l is long
# F is type of file where / is directory
mac $ ls -lF
total 134704
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac staff 64560 Mar 3 2009 A-picture-of-Youpi-key.png
drwxr-xr-x 83 mac staff 2822 Nov 7 14:52 Applescript files/
drwxrwxrwx 12 mac staff 408 Dec 13 2008 Christmas Cards/
drwxr-xr-x 9 mac staff 306 Dec 21 17:39 Christmas Cards 2009/
... trimmed ...


What does all this mean?

drwxrwxrwx

d = directory
r = read
w = write
x = executeable program

drwxrwxrwx
| | |
| | all other users not in first two types
| |
| group
|
owner



# l is long
# a is all to show hidden files & folders
mac $ ls -lFa
total 134736
drwxr-xr-x 41 mac staff 1496 Dec 22 17:11 .
drwxrwxrwt 8 root admin 272 Dec 24 13:55 ..
-rwxrwxrwx 1 mac staff 15364 Dec 23 12:52 .DS_Store*
drwx------ 4 mac staff 136 Jan 22 2009 .Spotlight-V100
drwxrwxrwt 5 mac staff 170 Sep 14 16:36 .TemporaryItems
d-wx-wx-wx 4 mac staff 136 Dec 31 1969 .Trashes
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac staff 64560 Mar 3 2009 A-picture-of-Youpi-key.png
drwxr-xr-x 83 mac staff 2822 Nov 7 14:52 Applescript files
drwxrwxrwx 12 mac staff 408 Dec 13 2008 Christmas Cards
drwxr-xr-x 9 mac staff 306 Dec 21 17:39 Christmas Cards 2009
... trimmed ...



# mv is move or rename
mv -i the-name the-new-name

# You can just rename the file back to what it was with mv command.
mv -i old-name new-name

Here is what these commands mean:
cd is change directory
pwd is a print working directory
ls is list
sudo is Super user do
mv is move or rename

For cryptic comments, you can always uses the manual command which is man. For example:
man mv

# Type the letter q to quit.

In case you have spaces in your filenames or directories, you need to escape them. See examples:

mac $ ls -l ~/"see it"
-rw-r--r-- 1 mac staff 3171 Oct 26 23:38 /Users/mac/see it
mac $
mac $ cd /Users/mac/Desktop/ttt\ html\ copy/

Do you know about tabing? Type in a few letters of a name then press the tab key. The computer will type out the rest of the name if it is unique.

Press the up arrow(s) key to see the previous command(s).

history to see many previous commands.

mac $ history
2 man launchd.conf
3 history



Robert

Good to solve that mystery.

Robert