Understanding directory structure
 

So I am playing around with gcc's -v switch to see what it is doing behind the scenes. I don't understand the directory structure it is emitting.

So for instance during one phase it might list an object file to be linked in like this:

/usr/lib/gcc/arm-linux-gnueabi/4.6/../../../../arm-linux-gnueabi/lib/../lib/someObject.o

If I copy this line(minus the object file), cd to it and pwd, I get this:
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/lib

nice and clean and readable. I assume I end up in a totally differnt directory due to symbolic links but Why is gcc showing a directory structure with all the /../ pieces in it?

Thanks for reading-Patrick

this is how the path constructed. gcc will not take care about .. and other parts, will not simplify it, just prints it.

Hi pan64

Could you tell me what the /../ parts are for? I don't understand them.

Thanks for answering my post

for reasons sometimes known only to the developers, path descriptions can be quite convoluted....

first ".." means move up one level in the directory tree.

Suppose you are in /home/username/files/xyz/

enter "cd .." and you will be in /home/username/files/

Now, suppose you are in /home/username/files/xyz/ and you want to display a file (fred) that is up one level under files:
more ../fred
OR
more /home/username/files/xyz/../fred
OR
more /home/username/files/fred

Play with a while and it will start to make sense.

hi pixellany


Thanks for you help. I knew about the cd .. but didn't know people used it in directories paths.

Have a great day :)