Does the psql prompt have a working directory in the file system?

Question

I am learning postgis. This tutorial says "Navigate to where you downloaded the shapefile." Does that mean navigate to this location in the #psql prompt or navigate to this location with the $propmt? In other words: does the psql shell have a working directory in the file system that you can change with cd, like in *nix?

I am confused because the tutorial says to run shp2pgsql after navigating to that location -- but shp2pgsql is a postgres command, not a bashcommand. But the sql prompt lists tables, records etc -- which does not have to do with the file system. So does the sql prompt know about the file system or not?

Answer 1

If you are learning PostGIS using a Tutorial based on PostGIS 1.5, when the version number is up to 2.1 is a mistake. (Unless you are using 1.5)

This command shp2pgsql is a bash command that's pipe'd into your postgresql shell

shp2pgsql -c -D -s 4269 -I tl_2010_11001_tract10.shp dc_census_tracts | psql -d dc-census