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Unix

A directory is a file that stores file names and information in a hierarchical structure with a single root node. The directory you find yourself in after logging in is your home directory, where you will do much of your work through subdirectories. Pathnames describe a file's location in the hierarchy either absolutely from the root or relatively from the current directory. Directories are listed with ls and created with mkdir.

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66 views

Unix

A directory is a file that stores file names and information in a hierarchical structure with a single root node. The directory you find yourself in after logging in is your home directory, where you will do much of your work through subdirectories. Pathnames describe a file's location in the hierarchy either absolutely from the root or relatively from the current directory. Directories are listed with ls and created with mkdir.

Uploaded by

samratbasucool
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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A directory is a file whose sole job is to store file names and related information.

All files,
whether ordinary, special, or directory, are contained in directories.
UNIX uses a hierarchical structure for organizing files and directories. This structure is often
referred to as a directory tree . The tree has a single root node, the slash character ( /), and all
other directories are contained below it.

Home Directory:
The directory in which you find yourself when you first login is called your home directory.
You will be doing much of your work in your home directory and subdirectories that you'll be
creating to organize your files.
You can go in your home directory anytime using the following command:
$cd ~
$

Here ~ indicates home directory. If you want to go in any other user's home directory then use
the following command:
$cd ~username
$

To go in your last directory you can use following command:


$cd $

Absolute/Relative Pathnames:
Directories are arranged in a hierarchy with root (/) at the top. The position of any file within the
hierarchy is described by its pathname.
Elements of a pathname are separated by a /. A pathname is absolute if it is described in relation
to root, so absolute pathnames always begin with a /.
These are some example of absolute filenames.
/etc/passwd
/users/sjones/chem/notes
/dev/rdsk/Os3

A pathname can also be relative to your current working directory. Relative pathnames never
begin with /. Relative to user amrood' home directory, some pathnames might look like this:

chem/notes
personal/res

To determine where you are within the filesystem hierarchy at any time, enter the command pwd
to print the current working directory:
$pwd
/user0/home/amrood
$

Listing Directories:
To list the files in a directory you can use the following syntax:
$ls dirname

Following is the example to list all the files contained in /usr/local directory:
$ls /usr/local
X11
ace
atalk

bin
doc
etc

gimp
include
info

jikes
lib
man

sbin
share
ami

Creating Directories:
Directories are created by the following command:
$mkdir dirname

Here, directory is the absolute or relative pathname of the directory you want to create. For
example, the command:
$mkdir mydir

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