pwd, ls and df commands

Output from pwd (print working directory), ls (list files) and df (report number of free disk blocks) commands.
ls and df

It's my D drive, as you can see from the 'pwd' and yes, the main partition on my hard disk is named after the Battlestar Galactica.

The pwd (print working directory) comand does just that, prints the current working directory, i.e. the directory that you are in. You may redirect the output of pwd using standard UNIX redirectors to either a file, a variable or pass it on to another command. See redirection for more info.

Another example of the use of 'ls' this time with the -l parameter, the following is the output from running 'ls -l a*' in my /windows/system directory.

ls and df

The '-l' option provides long information on the file including date and time information, the size in bytes and the type of the file including an indication if it is a (d)irectory, (r)eadable, (w)ritable and e(x)ecutable.

The date and time can be easily set to the current time with the 'touch' command which is useful for forcing compilation or processing of certain files by other commands.