E a directory that contains not other directories or

command is used to remove an empty directory (i.e., a directory that contains not
other directories or files). To delete the folder that we created, type in the following command:
rmdir folder
Use the ls command to confirm that the directory no longer exists. You should also see that it no
longer exists in your graphical window either.
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6.8 Your home directory - the ‘ ∼ ’ shortcut
There’s one last shortcut that you should know - the shortcut to your home directory. Your home
directory can be referred to by the tilde ∼ character. For example, if you want to change directories
to your home directory, regardless of what your current working directory is, you can simply do:
cd ∼
This shortcut will also come in handy later when you want to type in long paths that begin with
your home directory.
7 Commands to manipulate files
This section builds upon what you learnt in Section 6, allowing you to do some basic operations
on files.
7.1 Copying files - the ‘cp’ command
The ‘cp’ command is used to copy files. Two arguments must be supplied: the first is the path
to the file that you wish to copy, and the second is the path to the file you wish to create. The file
will be named whatever name you specify at the end of the second path. If you do not specify a
file name at the end of the path, but just a directory, it will automatically be named with the same
name as the original file.
For example, you can copy the C program hello.c , which is located in the directory
/share/copy/aps105s , to your home directory with the following command (try it):
cp /share/copy/aps105s/hello.c ∼
Note that we used the tilde shortcut here for supplying the path to our home directory. Perform an
ls within your home directory to confirm that the copy exists, and also check in the GUI window.
If you wanted to copy the same file (into your home directory), but name the copy goodbye.c ,
you would use the following command:
cp /share/copy/aps105s/hello.c ∼ /goodbye.c
7.2 Moving files and directories - the ‘mv’ command
The mv command is used to move files. Two arguments must be supplied: the first is the path to
the file that you wish to move, and the second is the path to the directory you wish to move it into.
Try moving the file hello.c from your home directory into your Desktop by using the following
command:
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mv ∼ /hello.c ∼ /Desktop
The directory called Desktop within your home directory is the actual graphical desktop of the
Linux machine, so you should see the file hello.c now appear in the Desktop.
7.3 Renaming files and folders with ‘mv’
The mv command can also be used to move files. In the previous step, the second argument to the
command was a path to a directory. If, instead, we supply a path to a folder and then append a
file name to the end of that path, the original file will be moved to that location and it’s name will
be changed to whatever you specified. So, for example, if we wanted to rename the file hello.c
(that now exists on the Desktop), we can use the following command to rename it to hello2.c :
mv ∼ /Desktop/hello.c ∼ /Desktop/hello2.c
7.4 Removing (deleting) Files with the rm command
The rm command is used to remove (i.e., delete) files. The single argument to