/
(Root directory) vs /root
directory
/
directory called as Root Directory
sits on the top of the file system hierarchy.
- That means it is the ultimate parent or grandparent or grand grandparent of any file or directory you can find on your system.
- It contains all the files necessary for the system to work such as boot files, libraries, packages, essential binaries, system configuration, user files and temporary files.
source
Now /root
is the Home directory for User named Root
. See at the bottom right in above image.
- Just like every User has it's own directory with his/her username under
/home
, User Root
must have also a directory.
- But Since
Root
user needs to know every tiny detail about system, so his home directory is created under /
itself by the name /root
- It contains the files and folders you created when you were root user and also the hidden configuration files for some applications or packages you installed.
Now when I sudo cd root/
I stay in the same folder (/)
As pointed by cylglad in the comments,
cd is a builtin shell command, so doing sudo cd /root won't work
See this :
amit@C0deDaedalus:~$ cd /root
bash: cd: /root: Permission denied
amit@C0deDaedalus:~$
amit@C0deDaedalus:~$ sudo cd /root
[sudo] password for amit:
sudo: cd: command not found
Instead you have to first change to root user, then do a cd to /root
$ sudo -i
# cd /root
# pwd
Feel free to add in more details.
cd
is a builtin shell command, so doingsudo cd /root
won't work (and you'll get an "command not found" error). You need to use a shell as root to use what's there (su -
for instance) or dosudo ls -a /root
if you want to see what's there.