How to Get to the Previous Directory in a Mac Terminal

Use the Terminal to get to the previous directory.

Introduced in 2001, Apple's Mac OS X operating system is based on UNIX. UNIX has long been renowned for its stability and powerful capabilities. Although Apple designed a visually stunning interface for OS X, like all UNIX-based operating systems, Mac OS X has many powerful features that can be accessed via the Terminal. This includes options to help manipulate files and folders on your hard drive. How to navigate to the previous directory is a command that any Terminal user should know.

Instructions

1. Open the Finder, click "Applications," open "Utilities," then find and open the "Terminal" application.

2. Type "ls" (without quotation marks) and press "Return" to see a listing of the current directory. When you first open Terminal and use the "ls" command, the initial folder should be your Home folder.

3. Use the "cd" command to change to a new directory. For example, type "cd Documents" (without quotation marks) and then press "Return" to move to your Documents folder.

4. Use the same command, but without specifying a directory, to move up one level in the file hierarchy. That is, just type "cd" (without quotation marks) and then press "Return" to navigate up one level of the file hierarchy.

References

• SS64: An A-Z Index of the Apple OS X command line