# Absolute and relative paths

Course: Terminal Basics — https://zero2vibecode.com/learn/terminal-basics
Canonical URL: https://zero2vibecode.com/learn/terminal-basics/1-3-absolute-and-relative-paths

A path starting with / works from anywhere. A path that does not depends on where you are standing. Knowing which is which explains most "file not found" errors.

Every path in the terminal is directions to a place. What differs is where the directions start from.

## Absolute: from the top of the disk

An **absolute path** starts with `/`, the root of the whole disk:

```
/home/user/projects/site/index.html
```

Read it as: from the root, into `home`, into `user`, into `projects`, into `site`, and there is the file. Because it starts at a fixed point, it means the same thing no matter where you are standing.

```
ls /home/user/downloads
```

works identically from your home folder, from deep inside a project, from anywhere.

## Relative: from where you are

A **relative path** does not start with `/`. It starts wherever you currently are:

```
ls site
cd ../archive
cat index.html
```

Same directions, different starting point — and the starting point is you.

## Why this is the error you will meet most

Here is the classic. A tutorial says:

```
cd src
npm install
```

You run it and get `No such file or directory`. The tutorial is not wrong; it just assumed you were standing in the project folder. You were somewhere else, so the relative path `src` pointed nowhere.

When a path-based command fails, run `pwd` before you do anything else. Nine times out of ten the command was fine and your location was not.

## The shorthands

Four pieces show up inside paths constantly:

| Piece | Means |
|---|---|
| `/` | the root of the disk (at the start) or a separator (in the middle) |
| `.` | the folder you are in right now |
| `..` | the folder one level up |
| `~` | your home folder |

`~` is worth a second look: it is an absolute path in disguise. `~/projects` expands to `/home/user/projects`, so it works from anywhere, just like a path starting with `/`. It is shorter to type and it does not hard-code your username, which is why you see it everywhere.

Both forms are correct — this is not a case where one is better practice. Relative paths are shorter and survive moving a project around; absolute paths are unambiguous and survive being run from anywhere. Reach for absolute when you are unsure, relative when you are working inside one project.

## Try it

You start inside `/home/user/projects/site`.

1. `pwd` — confirm where you are.
2. `ls /home/user/downloads` — reach a completely different part of the disk with an absolute path, without moving.
3. `cd ..` — move with a relative path, up into `projects`.
4. `pwd` — confirm.

Notice that step 2 changed nothing about where you stand. Reading somewhere else and moving somewhere else are different actions.