Here is the video version, if you prefer it:
When talking about paths, you can often hear “absolute path” or “relative path”. What do these mean?
Absolute path is a path which starts from the root directory of your Linux system. (Barrett, 2016) So an absolute path would be something like:
/home/mislav
Relative paths are relative to the directory you are currently in (the so called working directory). So, if I wanted to use the cd command (which allows me to change directories (“cd(1) – Linux man page,” n.d.)):
mislav@mislavovo-racunalo:~$ cd SomeFolder
I would go from ~ (which is a shorthand for /home/mislav) to SomeFolder, not from the root directory (denoted by /) to SomeFolder.
Hope this was useful!
References
Barrett, D. J. (2016). Linux pocket guide (3rd ed.). O’Reilly Media. Page 18
cd(1) – Linux man page. (n.d.). Retrieved January 5, 2020, from https://linux.die.net/man/1/cd