UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

From what I have read . is for current director and the / represents directory.

So I have a file hello.c in order to run that file I have to type
./hello which is a compiled C program. If I put a space after the ./ I recieve ./ is a directory.

However if I use the cp command
cp /home/user1/file.c .
The file will be copied to current working directory where ./ is not needed.

Anyone shed some light on what exactly ./ used for.

/ has 2 representation:-

/ - Root directory
/ - Directory separator.

So in this case ./ means current directory and directory separator.

Many utilities accept options and expect filenames as operands. If a filename starts with a "-", many utilities will see a filename operand and think it is a set of options instead of a filename. (For example, if you have a file named -r in a directory with other files named a, b, and c; the command

Code:

ls *

will list files a, b, and c in reverse order thinking that -r was an option requesting reversed output sort order; the command

Code:

ls -l -r

will list all files in the directory (including -r) in long format in reverse order. If you just want to see a long format listing of the file -r you can do that with either of the following commands:

Code:

ls -l -- -r
    or
ls -l ./-r

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