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How to Manage Directories in Linux?

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

Directories in Linux or any operating system help to organize the data and files, which is then easier to find and manage. In this article, you will learn everything you will need to manage directories in Linux. We will try to cover every topic from creating, and copying to deleting the directories and many more.

We will explore various topics, including how to use mkdir to create directories, cp to copy directories, rm and rmdir to remove directories, and mv to move or rename directories. You will also learn how to navigate through directories using the cd command and how to check the size of directories with the du command. Understanding these commands will help you efficiently manage files and directories in Linux.

Linux is a open source operating system kernel developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991, often referred to as an operating system by people. Linux kernel is combined with other utility software like GNU, desktop environments etc to form a full operating system which are called as Linux distros.

Directory which is also known as folder is used to store and organize computer system's files. Directory has many features which makes it a very good of storing and organizing files like defining permissions, hierarchy, naming etc.

To manage directories in Linux based system, follow the given steps carefully without making any mistake -

Step 1. Creating Directories

To create a directory in Linux you have to use mkdir command which stands for make directory.

mkdir directory_name

Step 2. Listing Directories

To list you can use ls command or you can also use flag -l with it to check if its directory of not like in below image you will see that in directory details it starts with 'd' in 'drwxrwxr-x' where 'd' is for directory.

ls 

or

ls -l

You can also list a directory's content by using ls command

ls path/to/directory

Step 3. Removing Directories

To remove a directory you can use 'rmdir' but for that the directory must be empty

rmdir directory_name 

To remove a directory which has contents in it use 'rm' with recursive flags '-r' or '-rf'

rm -rf directory_name

This will delete the directory with all its content inside it.

Step 4. Changing Directories

To change directories you have 'cd' with various attributes.

cd Directory_name

If directory is somewhere else then give the path also with directory name.

cd /path/to/directory

To move back to last directory you were in

cd -

To move to the parent directory of your current directory use

cd ..

To move back to the default directory use

cd ~

To check in current directory use (while it has no much use case other than scripting but it is still useful to know it)

cd .

Step 5. Copying Directories

To copy a use 'cp' command with '-r' flag to copy the contents inside the directory also. While you can copy any directory from anywhere like if you not in the parent directory of the directory which you are copying, you can just provide the full path of its location from where you are copying and to where you want to copy.

cp -r source_dir destination_dir

Step 6. Moving or Renaming Directories

To move or rename a directory, for both 'mv' command is used.

To move a directory provide the path of source directory and destination path. You can move a directory from and to anywhere, you just need to provide correct path with directory name which you want to move and the destination where you want to move, required you have permission to do so.

mv source_dir /path/to/destination

To rename a directory you need to present in the parent directory. just provide the old name and followed by new name.

mv old_name new_name

Step 7. Checking Directories Size

To check a directories/files size use 'du' command and to get in human readable format (kb,mb,gb) use '-h' with it.

du -h

So we had discussed all the core concepts of managing directories in Linux. Directories are essential part for maintaining and organizing the files and data in a file system. We saw the use of commands 'mkdir', 'mv', 'cp', 'rm', 'rmdir', 'ls' to create, list, delete, navigate and move directories. Its essential to remember all the commands by practicing them as you will need them while using Linux. So We hope you got the idea of how to manage directories in linux based system. Still if you have any related queries, following frequently asked questions will definitely help.

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