Linux / Folder and /root folder

I searched now a while but couldn't find an answer to this question.

I have a Linux based server (centOs).

In the root folder (/) i have a folder called root (/root).

Now when I sudo cd root/ i stay in the same folder (/).

First I thought that /root is a symlink but symlinks are cian blue and here I have dark blue.

I've read that the /root folder is the root user folder but I don't get in it.

Can somebody please explain what is going on here?

3 Answers

/ (Root directory) vs /root directory

1. / 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

2. 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.

change to the root user and then CD to it

$ sudo su # cd /root 

as was previously mentioned, cd is a bash built-in and can't be executed using sudo. if you want to see the permissions on a directory, try

$ ls -al 

then look at the permission column to determine if the user you are logged in with has permissions.

Your root folder is /. Your /root is the root's home folder. For instance if you create a user called test, then it's home folder is /home/test. For root user, it is simply /root instead of /home/root.