Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04

As a newbie I was having a bit of a nightmare with things not adding up when trying to use the simple Terminal command to change directory. Whatever websites or forum posts I was looking at just gave me information that didn't seem to work for me.

Eventually I found what I was looking for but now I want to know WHY...

clip@clip-HP-Laptop-15-da0xxx:/$ cd Downloads
bash: cd: Downloads: No such file or directory

But

clip@clip-HP-Laptop-15-da0xxx:/$ cd ~/Downloads
clip@clip-HP-Laptop-15-da0xxx:~/Downloads$


So why?

Why not:

cd Downloads

..like I see as an answer given in so many places?

Is this a distro thing, and that I need to be a lot more specific about where I get my information from? I can understand that, say, using Ubuntu and using Mint are not entirely the same thing, but surely something so basic as a change directory command shouldn't be so different between these two distros, rite?

Please bear in mind I am at the very beginning of my Linux journey so I probably require kid gloves!

Cheers!

Your home directory is likely /home/username and can be seen by using "echo $HOME"

When you initially log in you are located in your home directory.

The shell sees ~/ as equal to $HOME
Therefore "cd ~/Downloads" is the same as "cd $HOME/Downloads" and is the same as "cd Downloads" when you first log in.

Any time you have changed the directory you are currently in you can see where you are with a simple "pwd" which will display the present working directory. You also can always return to your home directory with a simple "cd" with nothing following.

The command "ls" displays the content of the current directory and thus you can see what is located there.

Use the man pages to see how ls, cd, pwd, echo, and almost any other command function and are used.

A simple bash tutorial will assist tremendously in learning how to navigate and manage the system.

Selcome to LinuxQuestions.

To elaborate on computersavvy's post, the difference is based on relative versus absolute paths.

Since your destination (Downloads) does not have a leading / it is considered a relative path and the destination would be a subdirectory from your current working directory. However since your current working directory is / there is no subdirectory called Downloads.

~ is a short cut for your home directory which is /home/username and since it has a leading / is an absolute path. Using absolute paths you can "jump" anywhere in the directory tree.

The advantage is that it can save you some typing time going to the next subdirectory.

All linux distributions with respect to absolute vs relative paths are the same.

1 members found this post helpful.

Welcome to Linux!
The red part appears to be your path, and / is the filesystem root, not your home directory. If it showed a ~ (tilde) then you would be in your home directory, which is where your Downloads directory resides.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

The relative versus absolute paths obviously confused me. I did see some information about that but being so new I was too confused to take it on board.

I hope you're less confused now.
It's really quite simple once you know it.
Please mark your thread SOLVED now (see my signature).