Overview
This article provides several examples of how to interact with directories after logging into your DreamHost server via SSH.
Navigating directories
This section explains how to change between directories and confirm your current location.
View your current directory
You can confirm the directory you are currently in using the pwd command. This shows the user is in the /home/username/example.com directory:
[server]$ pwd /home/username/example.com
Change to the user's home directory
The user's home directory is where all files and directories are located for the specific user. To navigate to the directory, use the ~ symbol. For example:
[server]$ cd ~
Change directories
To change to another directory, use the cd command. This example changes to the example.com/blog directory located within the user's home directory.
[server]$ cd ~/example.com/blog
Return to the previous directory
To change to your previous directory, use the cd - command:
[server]$ pwd /home/username/current/directory/
[server]$ cd ~/new/directory/ [server]$ pwd home/username/new/directory/
[server]$ cd - [server]$ pwd /home/username/current/directory/
The user above has changed from one directory to another and then used the cd - command to return to their previous directory.
You can move up a single directory quickly by using ../.
[server]$ cd ../
String together to move up multiple directories.
[server]$ cd ../../
Creating and deleting directories
This section explains how to create and delete directories that are empty or contain files.
Create directories
To create a new directory, use the mkdir command. The following example creates a new directory named directory_name:
[server]$ mkdir directory_name
Delete directories
There are a few ways to delete directories. To delete an empty directory, use the rmdir command:
[server]$ rmdir directory_name
To delete a non-empty directory (one that still contains files or other directories in it) rmdir will not work. You must instead use rm -r to remove the directory and all of its contents.
[server]$ rm -r directory_name
Be careful using this flag, as you will delete everything contained in the directory. There is no "Recycle Bin" or "Trash Can" in the shell. What you delete is gone forever, so use caution.
Viewing directory content
The following explains different ways to list contents and their size on the server.
List contents of the current directory
To list the contents of a directory, use the ls command:
[server]$ ls Maildir example.com logs
Add the -l flag to list the contents with full details, including permissions, file size, and last modified date:
[server]$ ls -l drwx--S--- 12 username groupname 4096 Mar 15 17:28 Maildir drwxr-xr-x 5 username groupname 4096 Mar 7 12:35 example.com drwxr-sr-x 8 root root 4096 Apr 17 06:33 logs
To list all files within the directory (including hidden files) in vertical format, add the -la flags:
[server]$ ls -la -rw------- 1 username pg###### 10541 Mar 12 18:46 .bash_history -rwxr-xr-x 1 username pg###### 430 Dec 18 14:45 .bash_profile -rw-r--r-- 1 username pg###### 237 Mar 25 2024 .bashrc drwxr-xr-x 5 username pg###### 4096 Mar 25 2024 Maildir
View directory sizes
To determine the size of a directory, use the du command with the -sh flags:
[server]$ du -sh example.com 1532 example.com
Add the -sh flag to see the size in a more readable format (KB, MB, GB, and so on). You can also list multiple directories and files separated by spaces.