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Exercise15 min

Exercise: A folder for your studies

Using only the command line, you create a small folder structure for your studies, copy and move files in it and check at the end whether everything is in its place.

Working with the computer

See first: Creating, copying and moving folders and files

What you will learn

In this exercise you use the commands of the command line together, and afterwards you can:

  • create a given folder structure with mkdir and cd
  • create, copy, move and rename files without using Explorer or Finder
  • check at any time with pwd and ls where you are and what is there
  • move between neighbouring folders with relative paths and ..

At the end of this exercise, this structure should be in your home folder, and you should get there without opening Explorer or Finder:

The goal of the exercise, starting from your home folder.

Work through the steps in order and check with ls after each one whether the result is right. If you make a typo, nothing is lost, because you can rename misspelt names with mv.

Step 1: The folders

Open the command line, go to your home folder and create the folder studium there. Inside it, create the two folders programmieren and mathe, and inside programmieren the folder uebung-1.

SHOW A HINT

You can change into a folder before you create something in it, or you can give the relative path: on Windows mkdir studium\programmieren creates programmieren inside studium, and on the Mac it is mkdir studium/programmieren.

SHOW THE SOLUTION 
cd ~
mkdir studium
cd studium
mkdir programmieren
mkdir mathe
cd programmieren
mkdir uebung-1

Step 2: The files

Create an empty file notizen.txt in programmieren and an empty file hallo.py in uebung-1. Then go to the folder mathe and create formel.txt there.

SHOW A HINT

On Windows you create an empty file with New-Item, on the Mac with touch. You get from programmieren to mathe with cd ..\mathe, on the Mac with cd ../mathe.

SHOW THE SOLUTION

On Windows, while you are still in programmieren:

New-Item notizen.txt
New-Item uebung-1\hallo.py
cd ..\mathe
New-Item formel.txt

On the Mac:

touch notizen.txt
touch uebung-1/hallo.py
cd ../mathe
touch formel.txt

Step 3: Renaming and copying

In the goal, the file in mathe is not called formel.txt but formeln.txt. Rename it. After that, put a copy of formeln.txt into programmieren as a backup and delete this copy again straight away, because it does not appear in the goal.

SHOW A HINT

Renaming is moving under a new name. The copy is in a neighbouring folder, so you reach it via ...

SHOW THE SOLUTION

On Windows, in mathe:

mv formel.txt formeln.txt
cp formeln.txt ..\programmieren
rm ..\programmieren\formeln.txt

On the Mac the commands are the same, with / instead of \.

Step 4: Checking

Go back to studium and use ls to show the content of all three levels by giving ls the folders as arguments. Compare the result with the drawing above.

SHOW THE SOLUTION 
cd ..
pwd
ls
ls programmieren
ls programmieren\uebung-1
ls mathe

pwd has to end with studium. On the Mac you write ls programmieren/uebung-1.

If everything is right, you have a folder in which you can keep your next Python programs. The file that you will bring to life in the next step is already waiting in uebung-1.

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Details
Level
Beginner
Modules
Digitization and Programming
In learning paths
The command line
Code
1528
Updated
1 November 2026
Status
published

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