Navigating the filesystem

Before we continue with more advanced terminal usage, it's important to understand how the filesystem is laid out in Linux as well as how to navigate it. First, we must clarify what exactly is meant by the term "filesystem" as it can refer to different things depending on the context. If you recall, when you installed Linux Mint, you formatted one or more partitions with a filesystem, most likely ext4. In this context, we're referring to the type of formatting applied to a hard-disk partition. There are many different filesystems available for formatting hard disk partitions, and this is true for all operating systems.

However, there is another meaning to "filesystem" with regards to Linux. In the context of this chapter, filesystem refers to the default system of directories (also known as folders) in a Linux installation and how to navigate from one folder to another. The filesystem in an installed Linux system includes many different folders, each with its own...