What's the difference between `./` and `../` in relative paths

In the file system, relative path means path relative to your current working directory.

The symbols ./ and ../ are used to represent the current directory and parent directory, respectively.

Here's the difference between the two:

  • ./ refers to the current directory. It is often used to specify the location of a file or directory in the current directory. For example, if you are in the directory /home/user/ and you want to access a file called file.txt in the same directory, you can use the relative path ./file.txt.

  • ../ refers to the parent directory. It is often used to specify the location of a file or directory in a directory that is one level above the current directory. For example, if you are in the directory /home/user/dir1/ and you want to access a file called file.txt in the directory /home/user/, you can use the relative path ../file.txt.

In summary, ./ refers to the current directory and ../ refers to the parent directory.